🇺🇸 The Blackbird Is Returning NASA has reportedly begun a highly secretive effort to return the legendary SR-71A Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft to service. The aircraft, serial number 61-7980 and NASA tail number 844, was previously used by the agency for research. Its last flight took place 27 years ago, on October 9, 1999. Earlier this year, it was moved from public display at the Armstrong Flight Research Center to a hangar at Edwards Air Force Base, where the center is located. The agency is also bringing together veteran engineers, technicians and pilots with experience working on the aircraft. Their immediate task is to conduct a detailed technical assessment to determine whether it can be made airworthy again. Restoring the 59-year-old aircraft presents significant challenges. These include nondestructive testing of the titanium airframe, detailed inspections and component replacements, bench testing of J58 engines that have not run for decades, and rebuilding the infrastructure supporting its onboard systems. The aircraft requires special JP-7 fuel, which is no longer produced, and triethylborane to start its engines. Its ground support equipment and simulators were scrapped long ago. Unlike earlier restoration efforts in 1994 and 2001, when personnel still had recent experience, NASA would now have to train new crews from scratch. How pilots would train for flights above 26 kilometers remains unclear, as the sole surviving SR-71B trainer is a museum exhibit. The rationale for restoring the Blackbird lies in its unique capabilities as a flying laboratory. It can carry up to 6.6 tonnes of experimental equipment on a platform above its modified fuselage, enclosed by a fairing known as a “canoe.” It can also exceed Mach 3.2 and sustain that speed for over an hour. This makes the SR-71 a valuable platform for testing hypersonic engine intakes, thermal protection materials and new avionics under conditions that slower modern aircraft, such as the X-59 with its intended speed of Mach 1.4, cannot reproduce. This interest in high speeds extends beyond restoring an old aircraft. Successors to the SR-71 are under development in the United States. Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works division, for example, is “designing” the SR-72, a hypersonic reconnaissance and potentially strike UAV intended to reach Mach 6 using turbine propulsion. GE Aerospace has also recently demonstrated concepts for hypersonic aircraft using dual-mode ramjets with detonation combustion, potentially capable of reaching Mach 10. Bringing the SR-71 out of retirement is about more than nostalgia. It appears that American aviators are gradually becoming disillusioned with aircraft that rely on stealth and are considering a return to penetrating enemy air defenses through speed and altitude, using a new generation of technology. We may therefore see the emergence of a genuinely new generation of aircraft, without the usual pointless questions about what distinguishes the sixth generation from the fifth. #info #SR71 #USA
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