对于航空航天爱好者来说，这简直就像我们进入了一个全新的、梦幻般的现实世界。想到“让 SR-71 黑鸟”战斗机重新投入飞行状态这样的可能性，确实让人难以置信；但事实就是，我们现在确实正处于这个阶段。关于这一切，我最想问的问题是：为什么呢？我们在之前的报道中已经提到了一个可能的答案：高速飞行能力在战术领域再次变得非常重要；而 SR-71 能够在 Mach 3 到 Mach 4 的高速范围内持续保持这种飞行状态，并且能够反复执行这样的飞行任务。
For aerospace aficionados, it’s like we have entered into an alternate dream reality. The idea that we are talking about the possibility of bringing back the SR-71 Blackbird to flight status is hard to comprehend, but amazingly this is where we are at. The biggest question I am getting about all this is why? We touched on the likely primary answer to that in our original reporting — high-speed is back in tactical vogue, and the Blackbird can sustain it in a realm of great interest, between Mach 3 and 4, and do it over and over again.
此外，它还能携带非常重的载荷，甚至能够在极高的速度下将这些载荷从机体上发射出去。然而，这些因素其实并不能完全解释为什么要承担这样一个规模庞大、备受关注且成本高昂的技术挑战。从整个研发过程中获得的知识，可能与 SR-71 重新投入飞行后所产生的实际飞行测试数据一样具有价值。
It can also carry very large things and even launch them off its back at those extreme speeds. But those are not the potential reasons for taking on such a gargantuan, high-profile, and costly technical challenge. Learning from the journey itself could be just as valuable as the actual flight test data a revived SR-71 produces. Let me explain.
让我解释一下：60 多年前，SR-71 可以说代表了当时最先进的航空技术；即便到了今天，我们仍然没有类似它的战斗机在服役中。不过，它已经停飞了近三十年。遗憾的是，许多用于建造、维护和操作它的专业知识已经逐渐消失。不过，通过逆向工程、利用增材制造和快速原型制作等技术的突破，以及将新材料科学、航空电子系统、推进系统等技术应用于其中，再加上构建一套高效的数字化工具链来加速整个研发过程，所有这些努力都具有重要意义——它们本身都具有很高的学习价值。
The Blackbird was as close to alien tech as it gets over 60 years ago, and even today, we have nothing like it in operation. Yet it has been dormant for nearly three decades. Much of the expertise that built, supported, and operated it is sadly gone. But the exercises of reverse engineering and leveraging breakthroughs in additive manufacturing and rapid prototyping, as well as injecting new material sciences, avionics, propulsion and other technologies where applicable, and above all else, building the digital toolkit to make it all happen as fast and efficiently as it can be done, are all of learning value.
如果现在真的正在使用NASA的SR-71飞机（编号为844）的数据来创建该飞机的“数字孪生模型”，我一点也不会感到惊讶。这架飞机此前曾神秘地从NASA的飞行记录系统中“消失”。一旦这样的数字模型建成，数字工程领域的突破就可以被应用于加速SR-71项目的研发与飞行测试进程。这不仅有助于让SR-71重新投入飞行，还有可能利用当今的所有新技术大幅提升其性能和可靠性。甚至有可能通过数字工程工具来制造出该飞机的“复制品”。
I would not be surprised if a ‘digital twin’ is being created right now of the SR-71 using NASA’s SR-71 tail number 844 — the jet in question that has mysteriously disappeared from its display pad. Once such a model exists, breakthroughs in digital engineering can be brought to bear to see how fast the program can be accelerated, both in terms of development and flight testing. This could include not only getting the SR-71 back in the air, but improving its performance and reliability, possibly substantially, using all the new technologies we have today. It’s even possible a clone of sorts leveraging all these advances could be built using digital engineering tools.
其实，这样的概念并不新鲜——类似的探索性工程项目（如X-55项目）早已存在。不过，当涉及到对一种缺乏技术支持、且备件极其稀少的飞机进行逆向工程时，美国那些负责处理高度机密外国军事装备（FME: Foreign Military Equipment）的机构或许能够提供帮助。
This is not necessarily an unprecedented concept. Just look at similar exploratory engineering programs like the X-55. But when it comes to partially reverse-engineering an airframe you have no support for, and few, if any, spare parts, America’s highly-secretive foreign materiel exploitation (FME) community could potentially lend a hand.
这些机构长期以来一直在幕后默默工作：他们不仅成功地将那些完全依赖外国供应链制造的飞机重新组装并使其恢复飞行能力，还能够在完全保密的情况下长期维护这些飞机的运行。他们早在快速原型制作技术和数字工程工具出现之前就已经完成了这些工作。试想一下，他们现在的能力会有多强……他们很可能是NASA在推进这个虽然敏感度较低但技术要求相似的项目时可以依赖的重要合作伙伴。这只是政府和产业界如何携手合作、共同推动SR-71项目复兴的众多例子中的一个罢了。
Operating in the shadows, they have been able to not only get totally foreign aircraft divorced from American supply chains pieced back together and flying, but they sustained them for years in total secrecy. They also did this long before the advent of rapid prototyping and digital engineering assets that we have today. Imagine what they can do now. They could be a top source for NASA to pull in to help in its far less sensitive but uniquely similar endeavor. This is just one example of many of how government and industry could come together to support and benefit from the SR-71 resurrection program.
关于那些供应链。在全盛时期，SR-71的后勤保障体系是有史以来最独特的体系之一。它为“黑鸟”以及其前身A-12提供了近半个世纪的支持。重建这条供应链将是一项极具挑战性但回报丰厚的工程，可能对航空航天工业乃至其他行业产生重大影响。那么，我们如何利用现有的所有能力，来启动这款源自计算尺和绘图台时代、性能最卓越的飞行器的维持运作呢？
Now, about those supply chains. During its heyday, the SR-71’s logistical tail was one of the most exotic ever created. It supported the Blackbird, as well as its progenitor, the A-12, for the better part of half a century. Reestablishing this supply chain would be a highly challenging, but rewarding exercise that could have major impacts across the aerospace industry, as well as others. So, how can we use all the capabilities we have now to jump-start the sustainment of the highest-performing air vehicle from an era of slide rules and drafting tables?
让已停产飞机重返生产线，对美军而言并非新鲜事。NASA的SR-71计划可作为先行者，以更好地评估此类提案及其成本，同时推动如何高效实施这一进程的边界。同理，通过应用尖端技术和实践，仅仅是让老旧飞机（或任何载具、系统）以更低成本服役更长时间，NASA也能为此编写“作战手册”，而这本手册的价值，最终可能超过重生的SR-71所进行的飞行测试。
The idea of putting aircraft out of production back into production is not a foreign one to the U.S. military, either. NASA’s SR-71 program could serve as a pathfinder for better evaluating such proposals and their costs, while pushing the envelope forward on exactly how it can be done efficiently. The same can be said for simply keeping aging aircraft (or any vehicle or system for that matter) operating longer and for cheaper, by applying cutting-edge technologies and practices. NASA can create the playbook for doing so, and that playbook could end up being more valuable than the flight testing a reborn SR-71 does.
我认为，在航空航天工程领域，我们近来显然失去了什么。尽管拥有甚至连传奇“臭鼬工厂”创始人凯利·约翰逊都只能梦寐以求的先进工具和技术，我们似乎不得不重新学习几十年前的简单教训，而这一过程往往极其昂贵、耗时，甚至付出生命的代价。在某些方面，我们似乎倒退了，或者至少在特定工程领域停滞不前。
I think it’s fairly clear that we have lost something when it comes to aerospace engineering as of late. With all our advances and incredible tools even legendary Skunk Works founder Kelly Johnson could have only dreamed of, it seems like we have to relearn even simple lessons from decades ago, and often times that can be a very expensive, time consuming, and even deadly process. In some ways, it seems like we have gone backward, or at least stalled out in certain engineering areas.
简单的事情变难了，难的事情反而变简单了。他们当年怎么仅凭量角器和铅笔就能做到那么多？让“黑鸟”再次腾飞，有助于探索并可能回答这一及其他问题，并帮助我们在未来弥补这些不足。
The simple things become hard and hard things have become simpler. How did they do so much protractors and pencils way back then? Getting a Blackbird flying again can help explore and possibly answer this and other questions, and help mitigate these deficiencies going forward, as well.
即使NASA的休眠SR-71最终未能重返蓝天，仅仅尝试这一挑战也可视为成功。这样做能识别出多个学科中可改进的核心领域，以及可更好地利用现有技术应对各类任务的领域。在此过程中，还能开发和完善新技术。所有这些都处于NASA使命的核心，而世上没有任何飞行器能像“黑鸟”那样，激励人们和组织为实现这一复飞梦想倾尽全力。甚至有可能看到企业甚至个人为其提供资助。
Even if NASA’s dormant SR-71 never ends up getting back in the air, even attempting such a challenge could be considered a success. Doing so could identify core areas across multiple disciplines that could be improved and areas of existing technology that could be better exploited for a whole array of tasks. It can also develop and refine new technologies in the process. All this sits at the core of NASA’s mission, and there is no vehicle on Earth that could drive people and organizations to give it their all for such comeback dream as the Blackbird. It’s even possible that we could see corporations or even individuals help foot the bill for it.
当然，所有这些收益都需要与成本权衡。政府对此类项目的投资必然有上限。但企业和个人则另当别论。
And yes, all these benefits need to be weighed against cost. Surely there is a limit the government can invest in such a program. Now corporations and individuals, that’s a different story.
所以，是的，这项工作的主要目标很可能是高速飞行测试，但在实现这一目标的过程中能学到太多东西，以至于必须将其量化纳入“黑鸟”复飞的“商业论证”中。
So, yes, the main goal of this effort will likely be high-speed flight testing, but so much can be learned in the journey to get there that it must be quantified in the ‘business case’ for reviving the Blackbird.
文章 让SR-71重返蓝天所汲取的教训 或与其飞行测试数据同样宝贵
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