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

327 points · 403 comments · ilamont

  1. yodon · · focus · HN ↗
    The SR-71 is cool, but this article is not at all confidence inspiring on many fronts.

    Guy being interviewed by a reporter about a secret project. A secret project that is trying to resurrect an antique plane that has been subject to weather and on display as a museum piece for many years.

    It sounds like a clown-show staged around a cool looking plane that's older than 90+% of HN readers.

    1. Animats · · focus · HN ↗
      What's so surprising is that this is supposedly using an SR-71 that was on outdoor display. The Museum of Flight in Seattle has one in much better condition.[1] It's on loan from the USAF, so the USAF could take it back if they needed it. There's another one at the US Air Force Museum in Dayton, and a third at the Smithsonian's annex in Chantilly, VA. All three of those have been stored indoors in good conditions, and were flown to their current location under their own power. Not abandoned outdoors on a pylon.

      This sounds too much like a politically motivated decision.

      If the US needed a hard to shoot down recon aircraft, converting a cruise missile to carry a recon package would probably be quicker. There's also the X-37B, the unmanned mini space shuttle the USAF has. The USAF launches one once in a while. It stays up for a year or so, and then comes back down and lands. There have been about eight flights. Seems to work fine. Once it was put into an orbit that grazed the atmosphere and went back out, to test if could do high-altitude recon if desired. It looks a lot like the original Space Shuttle, but it's much smaller, about the size of a small aircraft.

      [1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.museumofflight.org&#x2F;Exhibits-and-Events&#x2F;Exhibits&#x2F;blackbird" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.museumofflight.org&#x2F;Exhibits-and-Events&#x2F;Exhibits&#x2F;...

      1. dboreham · · focus · HN ↗
        I think this one was on its wheels. But presumably the key factor is that it was owned by NASA, which makes it I assume much easier for NASA to do...whatever with it.
        1. mrpippy · · focus · HN ↗
          The article says this one was on a pylon (with a spare engine on display on the ground below). Being owned by NASA is important, also being on a military base (the home of USAF test flight!) where it could be removed and easily wheeled into a large-enough hangar without anyone noticing for 5+ months.

          Getting any of those planes outside of their museums would be logistically difficult, and of course it would immediately be noticed. And even if you can rent a hangar big enough, and secure it, then you&#x27;re stuck at BFI&#x2F;IAD&#x2F;Wright-Patterson trying to do this impossible task.

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