I am a professional pilot and have flown over the Tucson boneyard many times. A lot of our Cold War era aircraft were cut up and put on display so the Russians could see they are not capable of flying when we ended the Cold War in 1992. I am pretty sure that they could be reassembled flown. Rumor has it all the SR-71s are still airworthy and can be deployed in short notice if we lost our satellite system.
For example, in Utah at Hill AFB they have an incredible museum of retired aircraft. They have an SR-71 on display and it looks like they could push the engine back into the nacelle do an inspection throw some fresh batteries into it, gas it up and fly.
The SR-71s I've seen on display are altered from what I saw in the hanger. It may be superficial,. but the "skin" isn't the same to the touch anymore (it was like mid-grit sandpaper), and some areas that were "rubberized" like the leading edges are hard now. I'm not sure how far they took the preservation process.
Interesting well i guess that squashed that rumor. I’m sure though they could still get them airworthy rather quickly if motivated enough. Analog aircraft are rare these days and the reliance on digital tech is becoming so insane if there was an EMP most (95% or more) commercial airliners would be dead. I fly a Learjet and I’m pretty sure I could still fly in the event of an EMP I only have a couple digital systems on board. I wouldn’t be IFR capable unless the VORs and ILSs were still operational
Question - the leading edges were rubberized? I wonder how they survived the extreme temperatures the surface would endure in high speed flight. I thought the skin got over 1000 degrees in sustained super sonic flight
Part of it was exactly for that yes.
I am a professional pilot and have flown over the Tucson boneyard many times. A lot of our Cold War era aircraft were cut up and put on display so the Russians could see they are not capable of flying when we ended the Cold War in 1992. I am pretty sure that they could be reassembled flown. Rumor has it all the SR-71s are still airworthy and can be deployed in short notice if we lost our satellite system.
For example, in Utah at Hill AFB they have an incredible museum of retired aircraft. They have an SR-71 on display and it looks like they could push the engine back into the nacelle do an inspection throw some fresh batteries into it, gas it up and fly.
The SR-71s I've seen on display are altered from what I saw in the hanger. It may be superficial,. but the "skin" isn't the same to the touch anymore (it was like mid-grit sandpaper), and some areas that were "rubberized" like the leading edges are hard now. I'm not sure how far they took the preservation process.
Interesting well i guess that squashed that rumor. I’m sure though they could still get them airworthy rather quickly if motivated enough. Analog aircraft are rare these days and the reliance on digital tech is becoming so insane if there was an EMP most (95% or more) commercial airliners would be dead. I fly a Learjet and I’m pretty sure I could still fly in the event of an EMP I only have a couple digital systems on board. I wouldn’t be IFR capable unless the VORs and ILSs were still operational
Question - the leading edges were rubberized? I wonder how they survived the extreme temperatures the surface would endure in high speed flight. I thought the skin got over 1000 degrees in sustained super sonic flight