this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2026
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They did it back in the 90s to do some research. Probably the same now.
We can’t really build stuff like that anymore. The people who designed it had an intuitive grasp for aeronautics. You can’t teach intuition to a computer.
I mean it flew in operations up until 1990 and its last actual flight was in 1999.
I mean that's just a silly claim, the HTV-2 drone has literally gone mach 20, which is nearly 10 times faster than the SR71. Plus the SR72 project is currently in development with aims to be nearly twice as fast as the SR71.
Twice!!!????? Is it manned?
Supposedly it's supposed to be optionally manned.
Yes, we can build such stuff these days. There is no shortage of engineers in the USA, there is a shortage of employers willing to pay well.
There is no shortage of experienced machinist, in fact we have far more advanced manufacturing capabilities than we did in the 1950's. We just have a smaller industrial footprint than we did in the 1950's but there are plenty of companies that can machine titanium (in fact there are more machinist nowadays that know how to machine titanium because its more common than it was in the 1950's.)
The shortage is in investors willing to invest in talented labor and the tooling to make the aircraft. The idea that we "lost" these skills is a general misunderstanding of how things work and reddit-tier click-bait "i'm smart" type headlines.
Yes, we can build a lunar lander even thought all the guys who built the original are dead. It would be a better lander than the originals. Yes, we can build rocket engines as good or better than the F1's on the Saturn V. In fact SpaceX developed engine technology that far surpasses the F1's for their boosters and just because they didn't make 5 gigantic ones (opting for 33 smaller units) doesn't mean they aren't a better platform. The Saturn V couldn't land it's booster to be reused later on.