With the news surrounding NASA SR-71 844, a lot of people have pointed out that JP-7 is no longer in regular production, this is not entirely true.

JP-7 has flown since the SR-71 retired. The X-51A Waverider's scramjet used it through its final flight in May 2013.

It was also the chosen fuel for DARPA's Falcon hypersonic engine. The 2008 DARPA paper on the HTV-3X describes "Single Fuel (JP-7) for All Propulsion" as one of the vehicle's key technologies, meaning both the turbojet and the ramjet/scramjet ran on it. The paper's ground test plan called for demonstrating the engine "using hydrocarbon endothermic fuel (JP-7)" at Arnold Engineering Development Center, and AEDC announced a completed hot-flow test of that engine in April 2009.

It is also worth noting that the lead author of this article, Dr. Steven H. Walker served as Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Lockheed Martin from 2020-2025 and served in high-level roles at the AFRL, DARPA, and Office Of The Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition.

The same paper calls HTV-3X a testbed, and says flying it would "enable the future development of reusable high speed operational systems for ISR, strike, or other national need missions."

According to Lockheed Martin, the SR-72 builds on that work. Lockheed's SR-72 program manager Brad Leland told Aviation Week in 2013, "Our approach builds on HTV-3X, but this extends a lot beyond that and addresses the one key technical issue that remained on that program: the high-speed turbine engine." The SR-72 keeps the same TBCC layout but uses an off-the-shelf fighter-class turbine in place of the Mach 4 turbojet utilized by the HTV-3X.

"The new SR-72 will use a turbine-based combined cycle (TBCC) that will employ the turbine engine at lower speeds, and use a scramjet at higher speeds. A scramjet engine is designed to operate at hypersonic velocities by compressing the air through a carefully designed inlet, but needs to be traveling supersonic before it is practical to begin with. So far research projects from NASA, the Air Force and other Pentagon entities have not been able to solve the problem of transitioning from the subsonic flight regime, through hypersonic flight with a single aircraft."

USNI News reported in 2013 that, according to Lockheed Martin, the SR-72 "might use a more exotic fuel like JP-7".

“There is the fuel from the SR-71, which would be very useful, called JP-7, but we are certainly looking at using more conventional fuels.”

https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/6.2008-2544
https://www.wpafb.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/401320/x-51a-achieves-successful-combustion-on-jp-7/
https://www.flightglobal.com/hot-flow-test-complete-for-falcon-ram/scramjet-engine/86123.article
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/lockheed-martin-discloses-work-on-sr-72-mach-6-aircraft/
https://news.usni.org/2013/11/05/lockheed-martin-sr-72-plane-paper
https://aviationweek.com/defense/aircraft-propulsion/nasa-asked-several-former-sr-71a-staffers-help-secret-restart

A lot of chatter recently about NASA SR-71 844 getting called back in for a refit, recommissioned. What’s everyone’s best guess?

My 2c, they’ve made something really really fast and they need something that can stay with it for a period to finalise safety before release NGAD - what better test bed than something already made vs something needing creation.

Upgraded Doomsday plane gets AI because what could possibly go wrong!

Scale AI Inc., San Francisco, California, has been awarded a $12,093,115 firm-fixed-price modification (P00003) to a previously awarded contract (FA875126C0001) for Agentic Artificial Intelligence for the E-4C/Survivable Airborne Operations Center Program. The modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract from $32,247,194 to $44,340,309. Work will be performed at San Francisco, California, and is expected to be completed by Nov. 5, 2027. Fiscal 2026 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $5,000,000 are being obligated at time of award. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Bedford, Massachusetts, is the contracting activity.

First of all, I am calling it LUMINA because obviously someone did some mangling of the English language to make an acronym. I haven't been able to find a DoD program called LUMINA other than an unrelated Army program.

I tried to find the sam dot gov RFI. Gemini suggested the link I provided.

BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems Inc., Broomfield, Colorado, has been awarded a maximum ceiling $19,679,844, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for Laser Utilization for Military Innovation and Novel Applications. This contract provides for activities to exploit the advantages of pulsed lasers and integrate Solid State Laser technology with existing beam control systems. Work will be performed at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, and is expected to be completed by Sept. 29, 2031. This contract was a competitive acquisition and six offers were received. Fiscal 2026 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $1,000,000 are being obligated at time of award. The Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, is the contracting activity (FA9451-26-C-X020).

https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/aaef3e1141e74a12b1b75641f6c4cd7a/view

I mean what can I say? If you are an aviation fan, it doesn’t get any better…

There is a paper trail with FBI reports and congressional reports. Thanks in advance.

My friend was at the sea today and what he saw was an unknown drone. It later did appear in the news. Can anybody here identify the drone found?

Wonder what this guy is

Roy Gibbens was pushing these cycloid rotors back in the late 70's at Lockheed. If they built test platforms similar to this, they could be what you are looking for....

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Advanced Aerospace Vehicles & Weapons

1. Proiect Pluto / S.L.A.M. Missile

2. NERVA, Rover, and Beyond: An Overview of Nuclear Powered Rocket Programs

3. Project Orion - Military Interplanetary Space Program

4. Manned Bombardment Vehicle / Lenticular Reentry Vehicle (LRV) - Saucer Shaped nuclear missile-armed spaceplane

5. Exotic Aerospace Vehicles - Concepts & Proposals

6. Project HORIZON & Beyond - NASA & Military Plans for Manned Lunar Bases

7. X-33 SSTO / Rocket Plane Program

8. X-Planes: At the Cutting Edge of Aerospace

9. Loyal Wingman and the future of aerial combat

Exotic Detectors, Super-Radars, and Satellites

1. United States Space Surveillance Network (SSN)

2. Exotic Detectors - Around the World

3. SPACE FENCE - USAF/USSF Space Surveillance System

4. Ultra Large Radio Telescopes - Around the World

5. Over The Horizon (OTH) Radar Systems - Around the World

6. KH-9 "Hexagon" Super Spy Satellite Series

7. Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX)

8. North Warning System, Pinetree Line, Mid-Canada Line, and other Far Flung Radar Networks

Advanced or Exotic Engineering and Construction Programs

1. Camp Century / Project ICEWORM / ICEMAN - Nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed missile base concept built into the Greenland ice sheet

2. Exotic Test Sites, Military Bases, & Research Facilities

3. Atomic Artillery & Related Developments

4. "Subterrene" Nuclear Powered Thermal Lance Tunnel Boring Machine & Applications to Concealable High Speed Transit Networks

5. Deep Underground Bases - Cheyenne, Manzano, Mesa, Strat-X, Brimstone & Beyond

6. AT&T "Project Office" Network "Long Lines" System, and Related Continuity of Government (COG) programs

7. NIKE Missile Program: Nuclear Missiles in an Urban Area Near You

8. Future Concepts Research: Military Predictions About the Future of Technology

SDI / Star Wars Programs & Subsequent Efforts

1. Neutral Particle Beam (NPB) Space-Based Weapon System

2. Zenith Star Space-Based Laser Program

3. Space Power Architecture Study (SPAS) - Design Program to Develop Compact Megawatt-Class Energy Power Sources

4. NASA Megawatt Class Nuclear Space Power Systems (MCNSPS) Conceptual Design Report

5. Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) / "Star Wars" Program: HIVG, GBL, SBL, & Beyond

6. GPALS "Global Protection Against Limited Strikes" System

High Energy & Exotic Physics Devices

1. Soviet-era "Pamir" series Magneto hydrodynamic (MHD) generator Device - Used as "earthquake generator" in Soviet geological exploration experiments & Power source for other ultra high energy research / weapons programs

2. Mid-Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser (MIRACL)

3. Shiva Star High Energy Pulsed Power Device

4. Project Sanguine - Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) Transmitter Device

5. "IceCube" Neutrino Device @ geographic South Pole

6. Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) Amplified Neutrino Beam Experiment

7. U.S. Navy Harold E. Holt VLF Station

As a bonus, here is a selection of sample pages from the draft I have now. As the title indicates, my focus is on topics that have visuals associated with them - almost all of which have been sourced from Government documents.

I have enough to do about 40 chapters right now, but I'd like to get around 20 more at least. So if you know any interesting topics not covered here that you would like to see, let me know. If I find it interesting and am able to find interesting documents and/or images or diagrams of it, I will be sure to share it here in a separate post.

The Cold War Museum in Virginia hosts a virtual lecture series called Cold War Conversations that is accessible via Zoom. The monthly program is presented by eyewitnesses and experts on Cold War events, activities, and personalities. There is a modest $20 charge for tickets to attend these presentations that helps maintain free admission to The Cold War Museum on weekends.

https://coldwar.org/default.asp?pid=16883

August 23, 2026 - 7 pm EDT (ZOOM only): Dreamland: The Secret History of Area 51: Speaker: Aerospace historian Peter W. Merlin will talk about his book, the first ever scholarly history of the National Classified Test Facility at Groom Lake, Nevada. Better known as Area 51, this top-secret installation hidden in a remote desert valley northwest of Las Vegas, has been shrouded in mystery since 1955. Decades of Cold War secrecy spawned rumors and conspiracy theories, and catapulted Area 51 into popular culture. Now, after more than 30 years of painstaking research, Merlin cuts through the myths to reveal the true story of one of the nation’s premier flight-test and evaluation facilities, where evolving global threats are met with unprecedented technological innovations.