“If you got a ton of money, maybe you can make it happen,” he told Aviation Week. “They went to the Moon, you know.”

That is SO funny.

I mean if it's the fastest, why would it really be retired? It'd be like Michael Phelps retiring after his first gold medal.

NASA is researching quieter supersonic flight, and I can't help but think of how the (also Lockheed Martin) X-59-

-has a extreme wing profile/nose, not unlike SR-71:

I guess we can put to rest the idea that the US government has successfully reverse engineered UFOs. Because if they had, there would be absolutely no need to do this if we could fly anywhere in the world in minutes or seconds and invisibly.

Who cares why - this plane is so fucking awesome it’s an end unto itself.

Guy at NASA:

Perhaps NASA is doing it to make a trophy that might impress the imbecile emperor in hopes of securing funding for space science.

Like in Rainbow Mars when the Time Travel Bureau has to go on safari to capture extinct pets for their imbecile emperor.

The reason they got rid of surveillance jets is that satellites can do it without any risk to a pilot and on a 24 hr basis.

To test against the SR-72.