Published : 01 Oct 2026, 12:34 PM
Updated : 01 Oct 2026, 12:34 PM
NASA may be trying to bring an SR-71 Blackbird, the legendary reconnaissance aircraft that still holds a crewed jet speed record, back into the skies 27 years after its final flight.
Former NASA and US Air Force engineers have been approached about helping return one of the retired aircraft to flight, according to reports by Aviation Week and the New York Post.
Mike Relja, a former Blackbird test engineer, said NASA approached him last month about helping get the aircraft flying again.
Relja, who turned down the approach because of his age and the scale of the task, was sceptical about the prospects of restoring the aircraft.
“I told the guy ‘You know, I’m too old to be doing this’,” Relja told Aviation Week. “‘I wish you well. I’d like to see you make it. It would be interesting. But I just don’t think you can get there from here.’”
“I do know they’ve got people working on it,” he added. “But again, without equipment, it’s beyond me what they’re doing.”
The aircraft at the centre of the reported project appears to be Tail No. 884, which had been displayed at California’s Edwards Air Force Base before disappearing from public view in May.
The SR-71A had been at the base’s Armstrong Flight Research Center since Oct 9, 1999, when it made the last Blackbird flight in the US.
Returning an aircraft that has spent more than a quarter of a century on the ground to flying condition would present formidable technical challenges.
Relja said years of outdoor display could have left the aircraft contaminated by sand and water, while its engines may not have been lubricated or rotated since its final flight. Spare parts valued at $600 million were also destroyed in 2007.
Despite his doubts, Relja did not rule out a restoration given NASA’s resources.
“If you got a ton of money, maybe you can make it happen,” he told Aviation Week. “They went to the Moon, you know.”
The Blackbird, which first flew in the 1960s, remains one of the fastest crewed jet aircraft ever flown.
Capable of reaching Mach 3.3, or around 2,200mph, it could cover the distance between New York and Los Angeles in little more than an hour, compared with about five and a half hours for a commercial airliner.
Other retired NASA employees said Blackbird engineers had also been contacted over the summer about the aircraft.
But the purpose of the apparent effort remains unclear. The former engineers said NASA did not explain why it wanted to return an SR-71 to flight, and the agency has not publicly announced such a project.
The reports have also drawn attention to recent comments from NASA chief Jared Isaacman about the agency’s ambitions for high-speed experimental aircraft.
“In the service of the first A [aeronautics] in NASA, we are rebuilding our X-plane fleet. The X-59 is researching quiet supersonic flight, but it’s just the beginning,” Isaacman told the All-In Summit in Los Angeles.
The X-59 Quesst is an experimental aircraft designed to test technology that could make supersonic flight possible without the disruptive sonic boom normally associated with breaking the sound barrier.
“It will not be long before NASA is once again flying as high and as fast from decades past – and then even more,” Isaacman said.
He added to the speculation when an image resembling a Blackbird appeared during an interview shortly afterwards.
“You sure that’s a Blackbird?” Isaacman asked, without elaborating.
