Seeing Blackbird fly again after all these years would be incredible. I’d love to know what NASA has planned for it.
OK - so, Trump thinks they are cool and wants them back in action despite having better technology already in place. This tracks because of his dumb Trump-class battleship in development, which will be closed down soon after being commissioned because it’s a dumb idea.
I love the blackbird / a-12 / yf-12 family. They’re truly the pinnacle of pre-computerized engineering in many ways. Most of the design was completed before 1960 - a mach 3 aircraft, made with slide rules and deeeeep institutional knowledge. People joked that Kelly Johnson could see air, he was so good at designing aircraft and anticipating problems.
that said: why bring it back?
it’s gotta be a successor - I don’t know if we could bring the airframes back to operational status, and the fuel situation is wacky. does anyone even make jp7 anymore? panther piss?
and even if you could bring it back to operational status, and supply the specialized tankers (most tankers fuel from a common supply they run off of, but the jp7 carrying tankers for the sr-71 have a separate tank just for the blackbird) and train everyone up, the blackbird is visible from hundreds of miles away on modern radar. It was stealthier than most of it’s peers but never a stealth aircraft like the f117.
This all tells me: it’s gotta be a new toy.
NASA has always been into atmospheric research and vehicle design. Pulling out a SR-71 is going to be faster and cheaper than building a new thing and they have a history of using hand-me-downs. I’m glad they are doing stuff, though this administration is probably focused more on “coolness” and bribes for profits. Getting the Blackbird is cool and the secrecy could be actual national security or free research for a buddy. I’d love to see more long lead space projects, deep space probes, inner planet landings, and outer planet orbiters.
NASA is researching quieter supersonic flight, and I can’t help but think of how the (also Lockheed Martin) X-59-
-has a extreme wing profile/nose, not unlike SR-71:
How can it be the fastest plane if it’s not even painted red?
It’s the only way they can be sure it’s not full of AI slop.
“If you got a ton of money, maybe you can make it happen,” he told Aviation Week. “They went to the Moon, you know.”
That is SO funny.
In the words of the nasa director themselves during the keynote speech “Are you sure that the silhouette we showed was an SR-71?”
The NY Post is a diseased maga rag and should never be used as a source.
Don’t you guys see it: If really crazy stuff happens and satellites are taken out of the sky, youre going to see to do some old-school reconnaissance.
I guess we can put to rest the idea that the US government has successfully reverse engineered UFOs. Because if they had, there would be absolutely no need to do this if we could fly anywhere in the world in minutes or seconds and invisibly.
Maybe they have done that, they’re just really slow, and not actually any better than what we have?
UFOs are most likely manmade, otherwise probably something other-dimensional like angels or demons. The distances in space are too vast for visitors, the idea breaks down in more than one way once you dig into it.
I’m enjoying this - “We’ve learned enough science now that we realize it’s more likely fantasy creatures would be visiting us than that technologically advanced sentients would be traveling interstellar distances to visit.”
That isn’t a terrible representation. And not necessarily unscientific.
What’s really funny is the Blackbird was absolutely the cause of more than a few UFO sightings, some that have been confirmed in hindsight.
We have no way of knowing if they’ve overcome the obstacle of traveling long distances in space.
Yeah but why would they do it to come here? I mean, gestures vaguely at everything
To study us. You might as well ask why scientists bring wild animals in to study.
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Also, if they were billions of light years away and they looked at our planet from afar, they would see our planet billions of years ago. No reason to visit. What are the chances of a random visit?
If we know that, so do they. If intergalactic travel is no different to them than driving across town is to you and me, why wouldn’t they?
Teleportation or something like that happens multiple times in the Bible, even if fiction it could contain nuggets of truth
Also why does increased activity in that sphere always correspond with batshit political times. Also why are all the UFO celebs obvious fucking grifters. Also…
Or maybe thats just what they want you to think 🧐
the ol’ reverse psychology
boomer nostalgia is a disease, and it isn’t more complicated than that
I mean if it’s the fastest, why would it really be retired? It’d be like Michael Phelps retiring after his first gold medal.
I wonder what would happen if you painted a blackbird with Vantablack paint?
If it flew at night would you be able to see it?
Would it stand out as darker than the darkness?
Perhaps NASA is doing it to make a trophy that might impress the imbecile emperor in hopes of securing funding for space science.
Like in Rainbow Mars when the Time Travel Bureau has to go on safari to capture extinct pets for their imbecile emperor.
