posted in Technology
NASA mysteriously trying to pull world’s fastest plane, SR-71 Blackbird, out of retirement — and won’t say why
Seeing Blackbird fly again after all these years would be incredible. I’d love to know what NASA has planned for it.
nypost.com/2026/09/29/us-news/us-quietly-sr-71-blackbird-out-of-retirement-and-wont-say-why/
Replying to @Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works
On one hand, this news is really fucking cool!
On the other, the motivation for this is guaranteed to be really fucking dumb!
Replying to @RhondaSandTits@lemmy.sdf.org
I’m really hoping it’s NASA doing some really cool science shit, otherwise you’d expect a military organisation to be doing this.
Replying to @Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works
They’re conducting on-going research into aircraft designs that can go supersonic without producing a sonic boom (the thing that made supersonic jets impractical for cross-country flights along with the insane about of fuel they burn) so I’d guess they need a reliable supersonic jet to test against.
NASA probably has lots of data on the SR71 so it makes sense to use that to test new concepts on.