> I'd be more astonished if there isn't something superior to the SR71

Makes me wonder if this whole operation is just public cover for something like that.

The problem is the people in charge now have not earned that kind of faith. If they’re truly trying to relight these things, my heart goes out in advance to the neighborhood in the Southwest that burns down before they rethink it.

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sippingabonedry 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> The problem is the people in charge now have not earned that kind of faith.

If you set partisan politics aside for 90 seconds, you might realize that regardless of the administration publicly in charge, the government is always doing stuff behind closed doors that your brain could not even begin to comprehend how they pull it off.

Stories like this hilariously implausible "grizzled old man casually leaks secret program to Aviation Week" is like throwing a cat a ball of yarn.

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not_kurt_godel 13 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Now turn your brain back on and wonder a 34-time felon & rapist POTUS who steals from charity is doing behind closed doors.

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stickfigure an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

On the other hand our commander-in-chief (engineering expert that he is) has ordered the Navy to switch back to steam catapults on an already half-built carrier. That will also require bringing back 70 year old retirees. Pretty sure Trump would switch back to coal if he could find any living boilermakers.

Sometimes bad ideas are just stupidity.

	▲	walrus01 12 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Political scientists are well acquainted with madman theory, but have we defined "dementia theory" yet? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madman_theory Irrational and volatile as a play-act is one thing, actually being irrational and volatile is a whole other ball game...

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adastra22 an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

This is Isaacman we're talking about. He is about as good faith as they get (low bar, I know, but for real this time).

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walrus01 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Or something as mundane as cleaning up and fixing something that's been out in the weather for 20 years so it doesn't look shabby at the front gate of their base.

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Waterluvian 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I don’t know anything but I can’t imagine they need specialists if it’s just a cosmetics job for a monument.

	▲	walrus01 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Or the whole "retired guy in his late 70s gives a quotation to aviation week" is a red herring intended for US adversaries, which seems like a fairly basic ruse, but might have been put together as a coordinated plan. It could have its own value of sending opposing nation state intelligence agencies and air defense people down a man-hour wasting dead end of investigating something that'll never happen.

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dreamcompiler 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

If they were doing that they would say so. In fact if they were smart they would say that regardless of the true story. The fact they aren't saying that means they're either stupid or playing 4D chess. I know which I'd bet on.

	▲	walrus01 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Another theory is that some smart people already know better, and they know they're going to waste many millions of dollars investigating its feasibility, but they've been given an order from Whiskey Pete and have to at least go through the motions of writing a study/detailed report on why it's not possible to reactivate in a reasonable amount of time or budget. Never underestimate how often the US military will send a group of subordinate people to do what is effectively busy-work.

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adventured an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

The SR-71 is because they need to test for speed.

That serves a huge number of things both offense and defense: engagement, radar, missiles, trying to boost the speed capabilities of new planes & weapons. And it applies both to manned and unmanned planes.

Russia is less of a concern now, however China is coming on very fast in terms of leveling up their military capabilities. I'd be very surprised if the US military isn't looking to push its capabilities around increasing speed generally, just as it does any other aspect. There hasn't been a significant leveling up in US Air Force speed capabilities in many decades (since the F22 supercruise three decades ago?).