NASA may be preparing to bring the SR-71 Blackbird—the fastest jet ever built—out of retirement, amid suggestions from the Trump administration that a new generation of hypersonic surveillance aircraft could be in development.

Former NASA and Air Force engineers told Aviation Week they had recently been approached about helping return an aging Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird to flight, nearly 27 years after the aircraft last took to the skies.

Mike Relja, a former Blackbird test engineer, said NASA contacted him last month about reviving the neglected aircraft. The SR-71 could reach Mach 3.3—roughly 2,200 mph—but Relja said he was too old to take on such an enormous project.

“I told the guy, ‘You know, I’m too old to be doing this,’” Relja told Aviation Week. “‘I wish you well. I’d like to see you make it. It would be interesting. But I just don’t think you can get there from here.’”

“I do know they’ve got people working on it,” Relja added. “But again, without equipment, it’s beyond me what they’re doing.”

The aircraft reportedly involved is Tail No. 884, an SR-71A that had been displayed at Edwards Air Force Base in California before it unexpectedly disappeared from public view in May.

The Blackbird had been housed at the base’s Armstrong Flight Research Center since Oct. 9, 1999. That date marked the final flight by any SR-71 in the United States.

After years on display, the aircraft could be filled with sand and moisture. Its engines may not have been lubricated or rotated since that 1999 flight, while spare parts valued at $600 million were destroyed in 2007.

Relja expressed doubt that engineers could repair the Blackbird’s damaged wings and retrain pilots to fly it, though he acknowledged that NASA’s considerable resources could make the seemingly impossible achievable.

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

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First introduced 59 years ago, the SR-71 still holds the public-record speed mark for a crewed jet aircraft.

At Mach 3.3, the Blackbird could theoretically travel from New York to Los Angeles in just over an hour. A commercial airliner typically requires about 5 hours and 30 minutes to cover the same route.

Other retired NASA employees also said former Blackbird engineers had been contacted during the summer about working on the aircraft.

However, during interviews with those former engineers, NASA reportedly declined to explain why it would want to return the SR-71A to the air.

The agency has not publicly confirmed or commented on the alleged effort.

Speculation surrounding the Blackbird has intensified this month after NASA chief Jared Isaacman hinted at plans for a new class of hypersonic surveillance jets.

Isaacman, a billionaire aerospace enthusiast, owns what has been described as the world’s largest private air force.

“In the service of the first A [aeronautics] in NASA, we are rebuilding our X-plane fleet. The X-59 is researching quiet supersonic flight, but it’s just the beginning,” Isaacman said at the tech-focused All-In Summit in Los Angeles.

The X-59 Quesst is an experimental aircraft designed to test whether supersonic flight can be achieved without the powerful, disruptive “sonic boom” associated with breaking the sound barrier.

“It will not be long before NASA is once again flying as high and as fast from decades past—and then even more,” Isaacman said.

When a Blackbird-like image came up during a live interview immediately afterward, Isaacman added fuel to the mystery by asking, “You sure that’s a Blackbird?” He offered no further clarification.

The Premier League has confirmed that Manchester City was found guilty of every charge involving serious breaches of its financial regulations, including allegations that the club manipulated its accounts by approximately £900 million.

Daily Mail Sport reported on Friday that City had been found guilty of multiple violations spanning a glittering nine-year period in the club’s history. The verdict sent shockwaves through football and raised the prospect of severe sanctions, including possible expulsion from the Premier League.

Until now, however, there had been no official public comment on the conclusions reached by the independent panel that presided over a hearing which ended in December 2024.

That changed dramatically with the publication of a lengthy Premier League statement. The league said City had entered into “sham contracts” that misrepresented the actual agreements with several commercial partners, while also relying on other “sham” arrangements to artificially increase revenue and lower costs.

The league further said the club had distorted its financial position at the Etihad by an estimated £900 million.

According to the Premier League, the panel concluded that Manchester City submitted inaccurate accounts and concealed the true condition of its finances from auditors and football regulators. The club was also found to have significantly breached both Premier League and UEFA spending limits between 2009 and 2018, a period in which it won eight major trophies.

The Premier League said several sponsorship agreements formed part of a “disguised funding scheme”. Under the arrangements, sponsors paid only part of the stated fees, while the remainder was financed by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), the company that owned the club.

The Core Decision published on Tuesday found that, in some financial years, ADUG contributed more than four times the amount paid directly by sponsors toward the club’s recorded sponsorship income.

In the 2013-14 season, for instance, Manchester City reported total sponsorship revenue of £127.5 million. The panel found that sponsors had provided only £16 million, with the remaining £111.5 million coming through ADUG’s disguised funding arrangement.

The panel also identified further ADUG-funded “sham” arrangements that enabled City to report lower operating expenses than those it actually incurred. It additionally found a “sham” circular agreement involving Fordham, an entity that bought the image rights of the club’s players, with the arrangement again funded by ADUG.

The Premier League said the arrangements inflated revenue and reduced reported costs by around £900 million, allowing the club to present a financial position that appeared to comply with spending regulations. As a result, City “filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators”.

Had the club accurately reported its finances, the Premier League said, it would have exceeded both the league’s and UEFA’s spending limits by a “very substantial amount”.

The panel also ruled that Manchester City repeatedly breached its obligations to cooperate with the Premier League and act in good faith. The club was found to have failed to assist with the league’s four-year investigation, which began after hacked club emails came to light.

The findings stated that City had made “concerted efforts to stop and frustrate the PL investigation”.

The Core Decision went further, describing some witnesses who gave evidence on the club’s behalf as “dishonest”.

“That evidence given by a number of important factual witnesses called to give evidence on behalf of the Club was false in a number of key respects,” the decision said. It added: “Certain of those factual witnesses had given evidence at the hearing that they knew to be untrue”.

Richard Masters, the Premier League’s chief executive, said: “The core decision establishes the facts of what happened at Manchester City during this period. It details how the club systematically broke Premier League Rules for nearly a decade.

“It also vindicates the Premier League’s decision to pursue this case against Manchester City. While the process to date has been both long and difficult, the League has remained determined that the facts be established independently.

“It is a key responsibility of the Premier League to ensure that the Rules, approved by the clubs themselves, are upheld to protect the integrity of the competition. It is paramount that the League remains competitive and fair for all clubs and for the fans. We take that role extremely seriously.”

‘This disciplinary case, and this decision, are the most significant in Premier League history. There are elements of the case that remain to be decided, including, importantly, what sanction must follow for these breaches. Now we have the Commission’s decision, we are committed to moving swiftly through the remainder of the process, to provide certainty for the League, our clubs and fans.’

In a statement released a short time later, City said it was ‘disappointed and surprised’ and referred to the ‘opinion of the Premier League Commission’.

It added: ‘The club is innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League and a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all of its positions, relating to this case. The club will therefore be relentless, and where necessary proactive, in any and all appropriate regulatory and legal forums.

‘The Premier League process remains ongoing, with significant elements uncompleted. Manchester City will now pursue the appeal avenues open to it, on the basis that the opinion contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe.

‘The club has diligently respected due process for eight years on the basis that the Premier League Board and Executive would behave as an independent, impartial and fair-minded regulator, free from partisan influence.

‘The club is obviously restricted in what it can say further until all future proceedings are complete.’

City have until Friday to appeal.

Man City were first charged with the 115 breaches in February 2023. While that totemic number stuck, the figure – as they subsequently corrected – was actually 130.

Of those, 54 were charges of ‘failure to provide accurate and up-to-date financial information’ while there were 14 charges of ‘failure to provide accurate financial reports for player and manager compensation’. 

Both sets related to alleged offences between 2009 and 2018 (2009-2018), an eight-year period which saw the club win four Premier League titles, the FA Cup, and three League Cup competitions. 

There were also five charges of ‘failure to comply with UEFA’s regulations, including Financial Fair Play Regulations’ and seven charges of breaching the Premier League’s profit and sustainability regulations (PSR) between 2015 and 2018. 

There were also 35 counts of failure to co-operate with Premier League investigations between 2018 and 2023. 

The hearing into the 130 breaches began last September at London’s International Dispute Resolution Centre, with the Premier League sparing no expense and enlisting KCs Adam Lewis and Andrew Hunter to take its case.

Since last week’s news broke, former players from Man City’s rivals have suggested that they might be awarded honours won by the club during the period under scrutiny. 

With the sanction Man City will receive still pending, Rio Ferdinand called for the club to be stripped of its titles – including their first Premier League victory in 2011-12 which denied his side, crosstown rivals Man United, the league’s top spot on the final day of the season. 

‘Next time (former Man City player) Joleon (Lescott)’s on, he better bring my b****y medal,’ Ferdinand said on Rio Ferdinand Presents. ‘If you’re found guilty, then I think you should have to give the medals back. 

‘When I see Joleon, I’m actually going to go to his house and just say, “Listen, hand it over. Hand it over”. You can’t really sit there and say that you were champions, can you? Or you won that or you won that.

‘Well, they’re not going to have to pay any fines. They’re not going to get relegated. Just hand over the trophy. Hand over the medals, hand over the trophy. Simple as.’

His then-team-mate Wayne Rooney has taken a different view, stating on Tuesday morning that he would refuse the second-hand title, but instead look to see the club relegated for their breaches.  

‘When I see team-mates saying “I want a medal”, I’m happy with the five I’ve won,’ Rooney said on his Stick To United podcast. ‘I wouldn’t want this one. 

‘Should (the players) get it stripped for what the owners have done? Yeah maybe, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable accepting it.’ 

Instead, he added: ‘I’d put them in the lowest league they can go in and then put restrictions on them in terms of how much money they can spend for the next three or four seasons.’ 

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The Pima County Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday that its task force, working with the FBI to investigate Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance, had been alerted to a possible new ransom note.

“The PCSD/FBI Guthrie Task Force was recently made aware of a new possible ransom note related to the Nancy Guthrie investigation,” the department said in a Tuesday post on X.

“Investigators are also aware of social media comments regarding the note and are looking further into the information to determine its credibility,” the post added.

However, a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation told Fox News that authorities are not treating any new notes as credible.

Nancy Guthrie was taken from her Tucson, Arizona, home during the early morning hours of Feb. 1, according to the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. She has not been seen since.

A relative dropped Guthrie off at her home in Tucson’s Catalina Foothills shortly before 10 p.m. local time on Jan. 31. That was the last known sighting of her.

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Investigators have yet to identify a suspect or person of interest, even though a masked man was captured on Guthrie’s Ring doorbell camera.

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Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said in the days after Guthrie disappeared that she had been taken. During a news briefing, he stated, “She did not leave on her own. We know that.”

Authorities released two ransom notes connected to Guthrie’s kidnapping in July.

The first note, sent Feb. 2, said Guthrie was unharmed and demanded $4 million in cryptocurrency in exchange for her release.

The second note, sent four days later on Feb. 6, claimed that Guthrie had died soon after she was kidnapped.

When authorities released the notes in late July, they said the messages featured a distinctive writing style. Investigators asked anyone who recognized the writing patterns to contact the Pima County Sheriff’s Department or the FBI.

Anyone with information is urged to call 1-800-CALL-FBI. Those wishing to remain anonymous can contact 520-88-CRIME.

A University of Georgia student is recovering after surviving a devastating fall from the eighth floor of an apartment building in Athens, her father said.

Kristin Sargent, 21, remains in intensive care with multiple broken bones. Investigators believe she fell through a window while dancing on a couch at the apartment complex.

Despite the severity of her injuries, Sargent was able to speak with a friend from her hospital bed. “Hey, I’m alive. I can’t believe it,” she reportedly said, according to her father, Richard Sargent, who spoke with Channel 2 Action News.

Richard Sargent said his daughter’s resilience has given the family hope. “She’s a good fighter, and so she’s going to be OK,” he said.

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The fall occurred after the Georgia Bulldogs defeated the Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday, her father added.

Sargent, a UGA senior majoring in finance and marketing, was at The Rambler apartment building on West Broad Street when the incident happened.

The property said it is assisting investigators with the inquiry. According to Channel 2, building officials also pointed to the window safety limiters installed throughout the complex.

According to court records, a clerk at an Oxford, Mississippi, vape store told a confidential informant that “people were dying” from kratom sold there. The records also show that one of the two Ole Miss students found dead had made purchases at the store.

Ole Miss students Aidan Hamilton, 18, and Robert Strang, 20, were found dead Sept. 21. Court documents state that both had similar packages of kratom or synthetic kratom in their possession. Officials said Hamilton “could have died due to a Pulmonary Edema,” a condition that can be consistent with a drug overdose. First responders found Strang “cold to the touch” at his home near campus.

The packages found near both students were labeled “Smax, Pseudo-DHM” tablets. Court records describe the product as a “Kratom like substance at gas stations or tobacco shops” that is purchased for its “narcotic like effect.”

Hamilton made several purchases in September at Puffs Vape, Tobacco and Beer Store in Oxford. Store employees Yahya Mohamed Mosleh, 51, and Islam Mohamed, 18, were arrested and charged with possession of controlled substances with intent to distribute. Court documents do not state that the kratom found near Hamilton after his death came from the store. One of his purchases was made the day before he was found dead.

A confidential informant working with law enforcement visited Puffs Vape, Tobacco and Beer Store and asked whether it sold “7 O Kratom based pills,” according to court records. A clerk reportedly confirmed that it did, opened a drawer beneath the register and removed a package of kratom.

Mosleh allegedly told the informant to “be quiet” about the pills and warned them to use caution, saying that “people were dying from them.”

Authorities seized more than 500 units of kratom from the vape store, along with THC cartridges, gummies, pre-rolls and other suspected THC products.

Hamilton’s roommate told investigators that Hamilton frequently smoked marijuana but said he was not known to use hard drugs.

About an hour after Hamilton was found dead, police responded to a house near campus and discovered Strang’s body. A package of “Smax, Pseudo-DHM” tablets was found on his nightstand, along with 20 to 30 nitrous oxide canisters, commonly called “whippets.” Strang’s roommates said he used the canisters daily. They also told officers that Strang had been watching football and took a Xanax bar the day before he was found.

Officials said Strang purchased the synthetic kratom-derived product at a gas station roughly 30 minutes from Oxford.

Investigators have not determined what role, if any, kratom played in the deaths of Hamilton and Strang.