--- title: "The CIA had a top-secret manual to help U-2 pilots avoid crapping their pants at 70,000 feet" description: "So much goes into flying a U-2 spy plane that the CIA even had to write a manual on how to eat so you don't poop mid-flight." date: "2018-10-18" modified: "2018-10-18" authors: - name: "Jared Keller" job_title: "Former Managing Editor" link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/jaredkeller/" url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/tech-tactics/u-2-pilot-manual-diet-defecation/" categories: - "Aircraft" - "History" - "Tech & Tactics" --- # The CIA had a top-secret manual to help U-2 pilots avoid crapping their pants at 70,000 feet ![]() *A U-2 Dragon Lady flies above the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, California, Mar. 23, 2016. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Robert M. Trujillo)* How exactly do the pilots of one of the world's most sophisticated spy plane take a dump during flights of between 8 and 12 hours at twice the altitude of commercial airliners? The answer is simple, according to the CIA: They don't. Back in 1962, the CIA put out a top-secret manual explaining the ins and outs of why and how U-2 pilots could go through a long surveillance flight while, well, *keeping their own waste in.* While operating at an altitude of 70,000 feet, the U-2 reconnaissance plane's low pressure required pilots take special precautions to avoid a grisly end, from a pre-flight diet of pure oxygen to a pressurized flight suit. "If nitrogen remains even after pre-breathing and the pilot goes up," as Air & Space [explained,]() "the thin atmosphere will cause the nitrogen dissolved in the body’s blood and tissue to essentially boil." That the U-2 even manages to operate at all without liquifying its pilots is something of a minor miracle. Flight suits came with a special contraption to handle urine, but defecating was simply a no-go at cruising altitudes. “We’d ruin the suit,” as U-2 pilot Capt. Michael Opresko [told]() Stars & Stripes. “So for that reason, we eat a high-protein, low-residue diet.” Ironically, the Central Intelligence Agency's guide to feces-free spy plane operations has remained classified for decades — until now. Thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request, the folks at MuckRock managed to [surface]() the agency's 1962 manual for "physical maintenance control," including the controlled pre-flight diet and regimen of pilots. U-2 pilots need a "high protein, low residue diet ... to provide foods which can be almost completely absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract" for at least 24 hours prior to a mission, "thereby leaving a minimum of residue for the formation of feces and intestinal gases," [according]() to the CIA manual. "This obviates the need for frequent defecation and decreases the likelihood of significant gaseous expansion in the intestinal tract." The bottom line: Less need to shit means less chance of your shit exploding in your gut. Gross. That core U-2 pilot diet consists of "meat, rice, eggs, sugar" and "small amounts of fruit juices, tea, and coffee," per the CIA: u-2 ![]() ![]() Banned foods, on the other hand, include everything good in this world: ![]() ![]() No word yet on whether the U-2 diet pairs with any other military-related activities, but if you do choose to give it a shot, send us a status report. You can [read the entire handbook at MuckRock](). **WATCH NEXT:** ## Author Jared Keller is the former managing editor of Task & Purpose. His writing has appeared in Aeon, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New Republic, Pacific Standard, Smithsonian, and The Washington Post, among other publications. ### Author social links [Twitter]() [Facebook]() [LinkedIn]() [Instagram]()