NASA asked several former SR-71A staffers to help secret restart
NASA is reportedly attempting to return a retired SR-71A Blackbird aircraft to flight status after nearly 27 years in storage. The agency has reached out to former staff and engineers to assist with the secret project.
Why it matters
The potential reactivation of iconic Cold War-era aerospace technology suggests a shift in NASA's special projects or experimental aviation focus.
A long list of seemingly impregnable challenges confronts a NASA team working to put this SR-71A back in flight for the first time since 1999, former Blackbird workers say.
Mike Relja, a retiree in his late 70s, received an unexpected job offer from NASA about a month ago.
The assignment: Help put a former NASA-operated Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird back in the air after a nearly 27-year hiatus.
Relja, an ex-U.S. Air Force and NASA test engineer for the SR-71A, could not believe his ears. David Ash, a former U.S. Navy and Joby test pilot who was hired in June as a special projects director for NASA, asked Relja to provide his expertise for a secret effort to return a long-retired and neglected Blackbird to flight.
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