The lack of empathy and concern for the truckers during the commission was shocking. Let’s change that and show gratitude for one another.
Aviation Week reports that NASA offered jobs this summer to several retired SR-71 engineers, including Mike Relja and Tim Conners, for a project to return Tail No. 844 to flight.
NASA hasn't confirmed the effort exists.
Why 844? It was the last SR-71A built and the last Blackbird to fly, in October 1999. It also has the late-model digital flight and inlet control system that nearly eliminated the SR-71's violent engine "unstarts."
They have the plane, but the hard part is NASA would effectively have to reconstruct portions of an entire support ecosystem that disappeared with the Blackbird program.