Dark Star UAV at the Air and Space DC

The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in DC currently has a small UAV display. These are shots of the Dark Star UAV.

Dark Star info

Dark Star front view

Dark Star side view

Wow!

It's just a UFO with wings, most probably what has been snapped in our skies for the past 10 years.

it's always humorous to me to see when the pentagon cancels a program of this nature. I tend to think it was "cancelled" by way of transfer to a black project status.

Groovy pics though. Thanks for the links.

What an abomination. So small, weak, feable and without use its insane that they ever bothered.

Had I'd of been the project manager for LM or Boeing (Yes Boeing did work on this with Lockheed Martin#) i'd of told the Pentagon 'Thanks but no thanks' and refused to waste my teams time.

The moment it was scaled down a fifth time to the Tier 3 - , the project ideals and effective use were dead. Thats not to say the pictures aren't appreciated, they are, its just that this little dude didn't get a good start in life and should of been terminated way before it became Dark Spot.


# The amount of people who read about the Dark Star and dispute Boeings involvment causes me no end of mirth. Even with it highlighted by the info boards and official documents the doubters still say 'no way!'.

Which Air and Space museum war this? The one on the mall? or The one at the Dullas air port?

reply to post by Djdoubt03

This exhibit is made possible through the generosity of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.

This exhibition is on view in Gallery 104

www.nasm.si.edu...

In the NASM on the Mall.

I'm going down there tomorrow, or Monday (if it's open on Columbus Day?**) to see it. Been a while, anyways, good excuse to go again.....

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** Ah, good news everyone!: "Open every day except December 25."

Very nice. Did anyone read on the infomation page that it first flew in 1996. If the air force were testing things like this then what have we got now

How I love the name of that UAV. Its name is almost a mockery or a validation of the names conspiracy theorists come up with for the alleged terrestrial UFOs.

That being said, "program canceled" my ass.

reply to post by inivux


I assumed those behind the project were fans of the Grateful Dead.
Dark Star by the Grateful Dead

My recollection is the Smithsonian museums are open ever day but Christmas.

You will note the comment on the sign regarding the exhaust. I gather all the players in stealth have the shape and coatings down to a science. Heat signatures may be a different story. If you get media access at Edwards during the airshow, they have very few restrictions on what can be photographed. One is no shots of south base. Really annoying since that is where they have the planes that haven't made it to their museum. The other is no photographs of the back of the B2 while it is on the ground. Now we know the B2 runs it's exhaust over the body in an attempt to "dim" the heat profile, but you have to wonder what we could see from close inspection.

Regarding south base, there are remnants of the directed energy projects back there. The biggest is the large vacuum chamber that can easily be seen on Google Earth.

When it comes to secrecy, nobody wants to be the one to let the secret(s) out of the bag. When stuff gets out by accident or leaked, the powers that be issue a statement that the secret wasn't really a secret, blah blah blah.

I never could figure out how on earth that semi buried but bare engine face did anything to achieve signature reduction. The exhaust is a little different - the vanes look like they may have been able to give a little extra control authority - but we'll never know unless LM spill the beans.

Still, the poor runt deserved a better fate than this subscale rubbish.

I'm reasonably sure the spinning turbine blades would be a problem, so probably it didn't fly exactly as shown.

WELCOME TO THE GALACTIC COMMUNITY

Perhaps the black job has a different propulsion system?Maybe this is the red herring model.......
It sure looks like it could slither through any kind of bad weather its so thin.....I dont imagine anyone has any specs on this baby like loiter time or ceiling etc...?

Originally posted by stirling
Perhaps the black job has a different propulsion system?Maybe this is the red herring model.......
It sure looks like it could slither through any kind of bad weather its so thin.....I dont imagine anyone has any specs on this baby like loiter time or ceiling etc...?

I cannot imagine neither.