this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2026
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558
NASA mysteriously trying to pull world’s fastest plane, SR-71 Blackbird, out of retirement — and won’t say why (nypost.com)
submitted 5 days ago by Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works to c/technology@lemmy.world
340 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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[–] testaccount372920@piefed.zip 18 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I can think of a couple of reasons to use the SR-71 again.

  • Concern that a crash in space could lead to a cascade of crashes, disabling all sattellites.
  • (On demand) capacity. I could imagine that the SR-71 can cover an unplanned spot faster than sattellites. Also, with the wars in Ukraine and Iran they're maybe finding out that they don't have enough imaging capacity.
  • The imaging angle, a plane can image almost horizontally, they can look under bridges, through windows etc.
  • A ten times increased resolution could be useful for recognizing details, maybe it's even good enough to recognize people though it might be pushing the limits of facial recognition. It's also the kind of resolution where they can read some text, e.g. identifyers on shipping containers or military vehicles.
[–] lime@feddit.nu 18 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

the sr-71 is definitely not a scramble-able plane:

  • it leaks fuel when on the ground (it shrinks when cold) so it's stored empty,
  • it's as aerodynamic as a brick when subsonic so it needs an insanely long runway, and
  • it has an always-on afterburner so it burns an alarming amount of fuel.

when they were doing surveys of iraq during desert storm they had to field a fleet of eight tanker planes over the indian ocean just so the damn thing would make it from japan to the gulf.

Edit: oh and those are specially designed tanker planes because of course it uses JP-7 so they needed separate tanks for that and their own fuel. they also needed to be able to refuel at like 850km/h or the blackbird would just drop out of the sky.

love that plane.

[–] Redjard@reddthat.com 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Iirc it starts nearly empty and is only fueled up in the air, so basically no way around tanker planes.

[–] lime@feddit.nu 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

that's apparently not true, it would take off with half fuel because the landing gear could buckle under the full weight.

even with a full tank it could only go for about 90 minutes though so anything nontrivial did indeed require a tanker.

[–] Redjard@reddthat.com 6 points 4 days ago

nearly empty

half fuel

I'm sure a skilled politician could sell this as being basically the same ;)

[–] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

still faster than launching a new satellite

[–] lime@feddit.nu 3 points 4 days ago

we have over 15 thousand of the things up there now, surely someone must have seen something

[–] Mrkawfee@lemmy.world 10 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Can't they do all that with drones?

[–] a4ng3l@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

You need to deliver the drones to the location of interest though. And regularly bring fresh ones I guess. A stealthy and fast as fuck delivery platform would make sense.

[–] CedricWhaley@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I don't think the SR-71 has much cargo space if that's what you're suggesting.

[–] teslekova@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 days ago

Imagining an SR-71 crewmember now opening a little hatch and awkwardly shoving little drones out, to see them instantly torn apart in the winds at the slowest speed it can go, 850 km/h.