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From: shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: SR-71 airframes
Message-ID: <1990Nov2.202459.29089@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 2 Nov 90 20:24:59 GMT
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From: Mary Shafer <shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov>

Glen Overby (plains!overby@uunet.UU.NET) writes:

   I recall that several SR-71s were put into "flyable storage" at the NASA
   Dryden facility (someone like Mary Schaefer taunted all of us about their
                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I've been told there's
no one like me!
   flybys).  Are they still there?

Of course they're still here.  We never get rid of a flyable aircraft.
Mind you, we haven't flown them.  But we have done engine runs.

There are two here at Dryden and a third at Palmdale.  We also have
a huge warehouse of parts at March AFB and a lake of JP-7 somewhere.

There's been some talk about taking back the SR-71s and using them in
the Gulf Crisis.  This is quite nonsensical.  It would take forever to
put the aircraft back into flying status with all the surveillance
gear.  (Surely nobody thought that the surveillance instrumentation
went with these aircraft to museums, etc?  They got pretty much bare
airframes.)  

Besides, the Skunk Works turned out a very nice plane in the TR-2.
Why don't we ever hear anything about this successor to the U-2?
Anybody know their status?

--
Mary Shafer  shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov  ames!skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer
           NASA Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA
                     Of course I don't speak for NASA
 "A MiG at your six is better than no MiG at all"--Unknown US fighter pilot