Isaacman Teases New X-Plane Reveal at Max Power Event, Insists SR-71 Is "Just Being Cleaned"

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman says the agency will announce a new X-plane at the Max Power exhibition at Kennedy Space Center in Florida this weekend. He insisted the reveal is unrelated to an SR-71 Blackbird that disappeared from public display earlier this year, deflecting a direct question about whether that aircraft could fly again.

Isaacman made the remarks on a new edition of NASASpaceflight's The Flame Trench podcast, posted online last Friday. The comments come amid speculation since September about whether NASA has been exploring returning an SR-71 to flight. At a conference that month, Isaacman appeared to tease that possibility, showing an image of a distinctly Blackbird-like silhouette while discussing plans for new X-planes. Reports subsequently emerged that NASA had been courting former SR-71 program members for a return-to-flight effort.

The aircraft at the center of the speculation is SR-71 tail number 844, the last flying Blackbird, which had been on display at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California following its retirement in 1999. On the podcast, STEM educator and streamer Eric Johnson asked Isaacman whether 844 had been powered on yet. "So, we're just cleaning it, man," Isaacman replied with a laugh. "It was so dusty out there in the desert, and it just felt like it needed a cleaning."

Turning to the Max Power event, which begins Saturday, Isaacman offered a direct confirmation of new hardware. "Since I didn't answer your question that you asked before, I will give you some insight that we will announce a new X-plane at it, and it is not the one you're thinking about," he said. "I am gonna deliver on the promise there will be more X-planes." Isaacman has pledged to revitalize NASA's X-plane portfolio on several occasions, including during a town hall with NASA staff on his second day on the job in December 2025.

Isaacman also described a recent trip to Armstrong, primarily to mark the naming of Troy Asher as the facility's new director. "They know to speed up when we go past the outdoor museum. They definitely don't want me out," he said, before noting, "You know the F-16 VISTA, pretty cool plane. Got some cool jets." The F-16 VISTA, now designated the X-62A, is a modified two-seat F-16D in active U.S. Air Force service as a testbed at Edwards. NASA's museum at Armstrong also displays retired jet-powered X-planes including a delta-winged F-16XL and an X-29 with reverse-swept wings.

Isaacman is an outspoken advocate for new X-planes, including types capable of supersonic or hypersonic flight, reflected in NASA budget proposals and the announcement of a new Aeronautics Flight Accelerator initiative. At the September conference, he pushed back on the idea that his silhouette image depicted an SR-71, but said "NASA is getting back in the business of flying high and fast again." The agency has repeatedly told TWZ it wants to see NASA flying "higher, farther, and faster than we have in decades" while declining to share additional information about the SR-71.

The announced X-plane, by Isaacman's own account, is not the aircraft generating speculation. The Max Power exhibition at Kennedy Space Center runs November 7-8, where the new X-plane is set to be revealed. TWZ has reached back out to NASA in light of Isaacman's latest comments.