Thread

NASA asked several former SR-71A staffers to help secret restart

327 points · 403 comments · ilamont

0xbadcafebee · 1790728000 · focus · HN ↗
To give you an idea how ridiculous this is: to start each engine, they made a cart out of two Buick V8 engines tied together - so four V8 engines to start the plane. Those V8 engines were long since out of production, so at one point they went around the country, to every junkyard, buying up every one of those V8s they could find, so they would have spares to start planes up in different places. If an SR71 had an issue and landed at an unusual airport, they had to fly the start cart and other equipment to that airport to start the plane again. Everything about this plane is expensive and one-of-a-kind. It's a hot rod that goes to space.
1. dboreham · 1790731592 · focus · HN ↗
  Granted there are likely many obstacles to getting this airframe flying again, but the V8s probably isn't one of them. All those V8s did (and I've seen them in action) was turn a shaft. There's an infinite number of alternate options available to turn the same shaft.
  1. topspin · 1790758480 · focus · HN ↗
    > but the V8s probably isn't one of them
    You can credit card as many ready-to-run 9L+ V8 engines as you want[1], built to modern tolerances using high quality tooling, tested on a dyno and equipped with a warranty. Maybe different mounts and/or couplers are needed, but that's a very finite problem.
    I suspect one actually difficult problem would be finding a refiner that can make the special fuel used in the unique engines of the SR-71. Then again, the US has a great many agile refiners at its disposal.
    The SR-71 is a rather awkward thing to operate. Fuel leaks out of the tanks until atmospheric friction heats the aircraft enough to make them seal. It's a big mess, and the cohort of people that were actually capable of making these things work is aged out of the workforce. Assuming any of this real, NASA must have something truly extraordinary in mind to consider this.
    1. <a href="https://blueprintengines.com/" rel="nofollow">https://blueprintengines.com/
    dboreham · 1790776975 · focus · HN ↗
    Aware. I've seen one being fueled, started, and flying.
    topspin · 1790814547 · focus · HN ↗
    The best theory I've heard (Alex Hollings) is that NASA is doing an exterior refurb to get the plane ready for a big reveal of some other exotic aircraft: putting it on stage with the new thing for glamor shots.
  2. 0xbadcafebee · 1790788346 · focus · HN ↗
    It's an example of how weird and custom everything about them is. Not just the plane but the tools too, and the knowledge of how to work on them. It's like reinventing the plane again.

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