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Originally Posted By Eponymous: Darkstar The image shows the Lockheed Martin Darkstar, a fictional mock-up and movie prop built by Skunk Works for the film Top Gun: Maverick. • Origin: Designed by Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works division specifically for the movie. • Design: Features a sleek, stealthy, delta-wing shape meant to represent a Mach 10 hypersonic aircraft. • Status: While it is only a physical movie prop rather than an operational military jet, it draws inspiration from real conceptual work surrounding hypersonic flight and unconfirmed successor designs to the SR-71. https://nationalsecurityjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/SR-72-from-Lockheed-Martin.jpg The Lockheed Martin Darkstar prop was constructed through a unique, top-secret collaboration between Paramount Pictures' production design team and the real-world engineers at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works. The director was adamant about avoiding CGI wherever possible, choosing instead to build a full-scale, physical aircraft for Tom Cruise and the actors to interact with. The construction process relied on specialized fabrication techniques: 1. Conceptual Engineering and 3D Modeling • Aerodynamic Legitimacy: Skunk Works conceptual designers and aircraft model developers created a hyper-realistic forebody model. • Digital Blueprint: The engineering team provided a highly comprehensive 3D CAD model containing accurate structural profiles and precise geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) specifications. • Design DNA: The ultra-thin wing profiles and sleek aerodynamic lines were heavily inspired by the historic SR-71 Blackbird and contemporary hypersonic research. 2. Rapid Fabrication and Materials • The Build Partner: A specialized manufacturing firm named ADM Works was contracted to translate the CAD files into a physical structure. • Speedy Assembly: The massive, full-scale mockup was completely fabricated and assembled in a remarkably fast 14 weeks. • Material Selection: The prop was constructed as a functional piece of art rather than a standard movie setpiece. It combined structurally sound internal framework with an exterior finish made largely of wood and composite materials. • Operational Capabilities: While it could not fly, the prop had to be structurally robust enough to withstand being towed at high speeds on the tarmac at NAS China Lake during filming. It was outfitted with fully operational landing gear. 3. Hyper-Realistic Detailing • No-Vision Cockpit: The cockpit was designed without a forward-facing window to match the engineering requirements of an actual Mach 10 aircraft. • Authentic Flight Controls: Skunk Works loaned the production actual prototype flight instrumentation and a real flight stick. • Telltale Wear: The production designers went as far as painting "tiger striping" heat stress marks on the nose of the plane, mimicking the material warping that occurs after intense real-world supersonic friction. The prop was built so convincingly that, according to producer Jerry Bruckheimer, the U.S. Navy reported that China temporarily re-oriented a spy satellite to photograph the mockup, believing it was a genuine, experimental hypersonic aircraft. The original full-scale mockup survived filming and was put on display at public events like the Aerospace Valley Open House at Edwards AFB and the Palm Springs Air Museum. It is definitely not darkstar, non of the proportions match. This is a great example of how the popular LLMs tend to try and agree with you. |
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Originally Posted By neshomamench: How would weather not also block planes that fly above all the weather? (That’s part of their thing) At least from visual sensors. I think such statement were only true in an era when we had to wait for a satellite to be on target. For this issue a spy plane would hold no advantage in a world where there is always a satellite on target. But there aren’t always satellites over the target. And what if you don’t want an overhead shot, but an oblique, and your current constellation can only provide that on an even more limited basis? Originally Posted By DriftingArmed: I think you are correct. Which means maybe they are trying to eventually develop something that can go through space without relying on rocket boosters? I don’t know I know he’s incorrect. |
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Originally Posted By cyclone: Targets can be obscured when the enemy knows the satellite is passing over......smoke, cover, etc......you don't always know when the plane is going to come by, and the plane can also change altitude.....satellites can be defeated Again, I think this was the (correct) logic of the past. But in an age of 24/7 satellite coverage, no longer holds. …and spy planes do not fly under the weather when over target. It doesn’t work that way. At least the U2 and SR71 era wouldn’t. Modern drones are another story. |
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L Originally Posted By Fulcrum-5: Reaction Engines, in the UK, went tits-up a couple of years ago. They held the IP for the Sabre air-breathing, dual-mode rocket engine. It was meant to push the (never in active development) Skylon SSTO spaceplane to LEO. Boeing had some involvement with them, a few years before they shut down. Maybe NASA picked that up |
Coyote with 40 people crammed into a minivan gets into a chase with DPS, Paco over estimates his driving abilities and *whmmo!* the Astrovan of Immigration becomes a Pinata of Pain, hurling broken bodies like so many tasty pieces of cheap candy...
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Originally Posted By tifosi: As much as I would love to see an SR-71 in the air again, this is just an aviation masturbatory fantasy. It's not like restoring an old P-51 or something. |
Coyote with 40 people crammed into a minivan gets into a chase with DPS, Paco over estimates his driving abilities and *whmmo!* the Astrovan of Immigration becomes a Pinata of Pain, hurling broken bodies like so many tasty pieces of cheap candy...
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Originally Posted By deuce_22: It's obsolete due to satellites/crazy aircraft the .gov doesn't tell us about. |
Coyote with 40 people crammed into a minivan gets into a chase with DPS, Paco over estimates his driving abilities and *whmmo!* the Astrovan of Immigration becomes a Pinata of Pain, hurling broken bodies like so many tasty pieces of cheap candy...
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If you want to study high-speed aircraft, it's not the worse base platform but it's crazy expensive to operate. I'm guessing it's just at a new home, maybe being studied groundside to inform new designs but I don't think it's coming back into service. |
Before you speak of rifles, use the piece of paper men once crossed oceans and battlefields to earn. If you curse the Republic as dead, make damn sure you showed up while it was still breathing.
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Originally Posted By neshomamench: Again, I think this was the (correct) logic of the past. But in an age of 24/7 satellite coverage, no longer holds. …and spy planes do not fly under the weather when over target. It doesn’t work that way. At least the U2 and SR71 era wouldn’t. Modern drones are another story. Originally Posted By neshomamench: Originally Posted By cyclone: Targets can be obscured when the enemy knows the satellite is passing over......smoke, cover, etc......you don't always know when the plane is going to come by, and the plane can also change altitude.....satellites can be defeated Again, I think this was the (correct) logic of the past. But in an age of 24/7 satellite coverage, no longer holds. …and spy planes do not fly under the weather when over target. It doesn’t work that way. At least the U2 and SR71 era wouldn’t. Modern drones are another story. Drones will be doing most of the spying in the future, but you can still defeat satellite coverage.......its why having both gives you more options We used drones during Vietnam to spy on the North |
"The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction"
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Originally Posted By neshomamench: Again, I think this was the (correct) logic of the past. But in an age of 24/7 satellite coverage, no longer holds. …and spy planes do not fly under the weather when over target. It doesn’t work that way. At least the U2 and SR71 era wouldn’t. Modern drones are another story. Originally Posted By neshomamench: Originally Posted By cyclone: Targets can be obscured when the enemy knows the satellite is passing over......smoke, cover, etc......you don't always know when the plane is going to come by, and the plane can also change altitude.....satellites can be defeated Again, I think this was the (correct) logic of the past. But in an age of 24/7 satellite coverage, no longer holds. …and spy planes do not fly under the weather when over target. It doesn’t work that way. At least the U2 and SR71 era wouldn’t. Modern drones are another story. You keep claiming we have 24/7 coverage (in every spectrum?) of the entire surface of the globe from space. Why is that? |
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Originally Posted By highstepper: Originally Posted By 2001WS6: U-2 is still in the air  SR-71 > U2 https://i.makeagif.com/media/4-05-2021/IAMp0X.gif Silly comparison at best. Closer to down right retarded. Different tools for different jobs. |
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Originally Posted By Cypher15: If its obsolete because of satellites why are U-2s used? Originally Posted By Cypher15: Originally Posted By deuce_22: It's obsolete due to satellites/crazy aircraft the .gov doesn't tell us about. Hard to swap sensor packages on a satellite |
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Originally Posted By highstepper: Originally Posted By -daddy: Silly comparison at best. Closer to down right retarded. Different tools for different jobs. https://media2.giphy.com/media/4ZikOEKno4dnssXLzZ/200.webp?cid=8dc8958c27ah2d2bxckij55bcythiacm4t4cjroqektxhj15&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=200.webp&ct=g 
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Originally Posted By Butternut: But like the F14, a real timeless, king of the hill muscle car  Originally Posted By Butternut: Originally Posted By Ameshawki: Sixty year old tech. I think we have better stuff. Agreed. Having said that, what they have squirreled away now must be absolutely mind-blowing. Let's assume stuff like this have 35 year operational lifespans. That would mean whatever took the place of the Blackbird has been flying for 25+ years now, and they're well on their way to replacing the Blackbird's replacement. 
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Grandfathering weapons only puts off until tomorrow what tyranny cannot accomplish today.
The only people made safer by gun control are criminals and tyrants.
The only people made safer by gun control are criminals and tyrants.
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This statement by Isaacman is one that everyone seems to overlook, but is very telling "On the other hand, building a new test aircraft that aims higher and faster than the SR-71, but may be based on its ‘DNA,’ is certainly possible. Such an aircraft could leverage material science, avionics, flight controls, and engines that are seven decades more modern than its progenitor. Technology demonstrators in this class could also already exist in the classified domain. NASA could possibly assume ownership of one after the Pentagon declassifies it, as well.” Source: https://www.twz.com/air/a-sr-71-blackbird-has-vanished?utm_source=pushly Isaacman is saying they can get something already built, and stored away. Other than the SR-71. Probably stored at Area 51, could even be Holloman AFB. There doesn't seem to be much infrastructure at Dugway PG, and that is army, to keep some specialized large aircraft. What might be mothballed in one of the old prime contractor hangars at Area 51? Pretty likely Lockheed, based on some titanium producer along the Ohio River's mythology. Something built maybe built around 1990? Could be some later stuff. Something made of the same beta titanium alloy as the SR-71? Maybe something later used a newer beta alloy like 21S? 21S wasn't available in the 1960s, and not yet even in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when someone bought a shitload of Ti-13V-11Cr-3Al beta alloy. 21S is easier to produce and has similar properties at elevated temperatures. They used to make a lot of that alloy, but not much anymore mostly due to poor management at the plant level. (And so what do you do with those people who screwed everything up? Promote them of course, all the way up to corporate level) Maybe they even used some titanium aluminide sheets on sections of it? (Was very unforgiving stuff to make in that form - so much so I don't think anyone is even trying to make it as sheet today except in very small experimental batches - it can be like glass if not worked properly ). This stuff was made in the same timeframe as the 13-11-3. Openly that stuff was being developed for the X-30 National Aerospace Plane. The so called orient express, that could fly from DC to tokyo in 90 minutes. At least thats what was promised back in the Reagan administration. And why did the USAF or BLM recently take over yet more land that looked over Area 51 that was 26 miles away - Tikaboo Peak overlook? Now the closest public observation point is about 46 miles away. And don't be surprised if they restrict access to that peak, too, soon. |
The cost of treason isn't paid in Dollars.
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