this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2026
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NASA mysteriously trying to pull world’s fastest plane, SR-71 Blackbird, out of retirement — and won’t say why (nypost.com)
submitted 4 days ago by Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works to c/technology@lemmy.world
336 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Seeing Blackbird fly again after all these years would be incredible. I'd love to know what NASA has planned for it.

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[–] RhondaSandTits@lemmy.sdf.org 46 points 4 days ago (2 children)

On one hand, this news is really fucking cool!

On the other, the motivation for this is guaranteed to be really fucking dumb!

[–] devedeset@lemmy.zip 19 points 4 days ago

There could be some legitimate uses (NASA operates U-2 spy planes over wildfires to this day) but it would not surprise me at all if it is for some dumb reason.

[–] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 13 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I'm really hoping it's NASA doing some really cool science shit, otherwise you'd expect a military organisation to be doing this.

[–] cardboardboxfort@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago

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.