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
I like its lines, but realistically, I don’t know what you’d use it for unless you need extremely high-resolution images.
We know, from Trump’s probably-ill-advised tweet back in 2019, that we can do 10-centimeter resolution from reconaissance satellites like USA-224, near the physical limitations of light resolution.
Perigee altitude: 270 kilometers (170 mi)[1]
Apogee altitude: 986 kilometers (613 mi)[1]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird
During missions, the SR-71 operated at high speeds and altitudes (Mach 3.2 at 85,000 ft or 26,000 m)
The SR-71 operates at a tenth to a thirtieth USA-224’s altitude, so assuming comparable imaging systems (which I could believe) and that there aren’t stability or thermal issues (which I’d be less-certain of) it can get ten to thirty times the resolution of a KH11 satellite from the lower altitude. I’m not sure how much utility there is in reconnaissance to getting 1 cm or ⅓ cm resolution images instead of 10 cm.
en.wikipedia.orgUSA-224 - WikipediaReplying to @tal@lemmy.today
realistically, I don’t know what you’d use it for unless you need extremely high-resolution images.
Well, what does NASA do?
I think it’s a pretty safe bet that NASA wants it to test something about aerodynamics at extremely high speeds. Perhaps they want it to deploy some experiment at mach 3. Sometimes you just don’t know if your simulation models are correct, and you need to try something in the real world.
I suppose it’s also possible they want it to get some close up footage of a rocket during launch or reentry.
But I think the most likely answer is still that they just need something that goes very fast.
Replying to @Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
The thing is sounding rockets do exactly that and are still in service (vs somehow unfucking an ancient plane that hasn’t been serviced in decades with tooling that no longer exists) and there are multiple companies out there operating supersonic drones for high speed tests of whatever you wanna do.
I dont see the value in bringing the blackbird back into service. I think its more likely that they want to freshen up the paint and park it at some press conference / event.
Replying to @Starfighter@discuss.tchncs.de
Well, you can control your airspeed and attitude in an airplane, solid rockets just make a ballistic arch and they only accelerate, they can’t maintain a speed.
So if you want to test how air behaves in a particular regime, you can’t actually maintain that regime with a sounding rocket, so the best you can get is a snapshot.
Honestly, if what they’re working on is dialing-in their computer models, the more precise data they can get, the better. It makes sense to maintain a speed for a minute, so you can get a really good running average on your measurements of air pressure, heating, drag, etc. They may want to conduct the same tests at different altitudes and airspeeds, and probably all in level flight. To control all those factors, that’s near impossible to do with a rocket.
Again, I don’t know what they’re doing, what their actual plans are. I’m just saying there are absolutely plausible reasons to use this aircraft.