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I recently saw documentary about an incident in the 1970s that off-handedly mentioned that the Air Force had "loaned" an SR-71 to help with some search efforts. I assume by "loaned" that the Air Force took pictures where they were asked rather than hand the keys over.

Was this a regular thing or was it unusual?

How many times has the SR-71 been used for non-military purposes?

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    $\begingroup$ Are you sure they said "search efforts" and not "research efforts"? NASA used the SR-71s for some scientific research projects. $\endgroup$
    – Darth Pseudonym
    Commented Sep 5 at 20:54
  • $\begingroup$ @DarthPseudonym - I added an answer with the one I heard about. I was hoping someone else would know more about it and other weird ones. $\endgroup$
    – Hannover Fist
    Commented Sep 6 at 4:07
  • $\begingroup$ Would filming a movie about the military count as "non-military purposes"? I'm sure there are examples of that. Hollywood often "borrows" military aircraft and other vehicles. (Generally they are still flown by actual military personnel, but the purpose is filmmaking, not military.) $\endgroup$
    – Darrel Hoffman
    Commented Sep 7 at 16:16
  • $\begingroup$ @DarrelHoffman - yes, that would seem to fit. I assume this would be something out of the ordinary and not just filming some already planned mission. DId they use it in X-Men? lol $\endgroup$
    – Hannover Fist
    Commented Sep 9 at 15:19

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Yes, the SR71 was briefly reactivated during the 90s before being retired again in 1998. About the search efforts I don't know.

During the 1990s two SR-71 Blackbird aircraft were used by NASA as testbeds for high-speed and high-altitude aeronautical research at Dryden - Edwards AFB, California.

SR-71 activities at Dryden were part of NASA’s overall high-speed aeronautical research program and involved other NASA research Centers, other government agencies, universities, and commercial firms.

By the time the Air Force loaned the two SR71s to Dryden the center already had a decade of past experience with the Blackbirds. Three of the aircraft were flown at the facility between December 1969 and November 1979 in a joint NASA/Air Force program

The exact quote from the NASA website says

The aircraft included an SR-71A and SR-71B (the trainer version), loaned to NASA by the U.S. Air Force.

Perhaps this is the loan mentioned?

There's more information about the SR71s at NASA over here.

In fact even its very last flight was with NASA,

  • 9 October 1999: The last flight of the SR-71 (AF Ser. No. 61-7980/NASA 844)
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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks. I was wondering about other times like this. This obviously isn't the same as it's not in the 70s. I know what the 1971 use was for - I didn't want to bias or eliminate any other answers by mentioning it. $\endgroup$
    – Hannover Fist
    Commented Sep 5 at 17:32
  • $\begingroup$ Yes I saw that, I was mostly interested in answering the second question, "How many times has the SR-71 been used for non-military purposes?" $\endgroup$
    – Aadiraj Anil
    Commented Sep 5 at 17:33
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December 1971 - Washington - Search for DB Cooper

The FBI got use of the SR-71 Blackbird to search for signs of D.B. Cooper. Cooper hijacked a Boeing 727 from Northwest Orient Airlines on November 24th, 1971 during a flight from Portland to Seattle. In Seattle he was given $200,000 and 4 parachutes. During the flight to Reno around 9:00, he jumped off the 727's aft staircase over Washington.

A ground and air search didn't turn up anything so the FBI got use of the SR-71 to fly reconnaissance to find any signs of the parachutes or anything else.

On December 6, 1971, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover approved the use of an Air Force SR-71 Blackbird to retrace and photograph Flight 305's flightpath and attempt to locate the items Cooper carried during his jump. The SR-71 made five flights to retrace Flight 305's route, but due to poor visibility, the photography attempts were unsuccessful.

Wikipedia/DB Cooper

On the DB Cooper documentary I saw, they mentioned that the SR-71 was used to search the area, implying it was the next day looking for him but it was about 2 weeks later, and they were looking for any signs.

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NASA Space Shuttle pilots used SR-71 as a decoy when they practiced intercepting a landing space shuttle. This was before STS-1 when they were proofing their procedures prior to the first Space Shuttle flight. But of course, the SR-71 was operated by Air Force crews. Even if it was a one-or-few times thing i would classify it as a non-military operation.

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    $\begingroup$ What do you mean by "used as a decoy"? And who was intercepting what? $\endgroup$
    – Jpe61
    Commented Sep 5 at 19:17
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    $\begingroup$ It appears to have been used to mock the shuttle lander because it could approximate some aerodynamic characteristics of the shuttle; see a post on the subject. $\endgroup$
    – Adam Hyland
    Commented Sep 5 at 21:22
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    $\begingroup$ @Jpe61 NASA used chase planes to provide an external view to help the very fast, very ungainly Space Shuttle glide to a landing like a brick fired from a cannon. Example from STS-3. 6 minutes from landing the Space Shuttle would still be doing 2000 mph. See Landing the Space Shuttle Orbiter. Presumably they needed the SR-71 so the chase planes could practice intercepting something that fast. $\endgroup$
    – Schwern
    Commented Sep 6 at 3:00
  • $\begingroup$ Do you know where? Mojave? Somewhere a little more private like Groom Lake? $\endgroup$
    – Hannover Fist
    Commented Sep 6 at 23:57

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