Lockheed Martin RQ-3A DarkStar

[flateric]

Original Skunk Works DarkStar leaflet

 

[flateric]

Tight Fit
Two of the three Lockheed Martin RQ-3A DarkStar unmanned aerial vehicles built are shown packed in a C-5B Galaxy on their final flight from Palmdale, California, to the US Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, in December 1999. DarkStar first flew on 29 March 1996, but it crashed during its second flight a month later. The second DarkStar (shown at left) was modified to increase its stability and first flew on 29 June 1998. It is now on display at the museum at Wright-Patterson. Two additional DarkStar vehicles (including the one on the right) were completed, but they never flew. One of those aircraft is on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, and the other is on display at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington. In January 1999, the Department of Defense terminated the DarkStar UAV program because of budget cuts. The C-5 that carried the DarkStars was based at Travis AFB, California.

Photo Posted: 9 September 2010

http://www.codeonemagazine.com/gallery_slideshow.html?item_id=822

 

[flateric]

Bill Sweetman with his sharp eye noticed THIRD one here...

 

[LowObservable]

Three DarkStars ah ha ha ha!

 

[John21]

Does this mean they built more than three? Its says in the text that out of the three built one crashed. But since this photos was taken in 1999 AFTER the crash of one of the DarkStars what is the third one doing there? ;D

 

[flateric]

They built four. Two were never flown.

 

[aero-engineer]

Zap from my collection.

aero-engineer

 

[flateric]

http://youtu.be/B8tErBR4YrE

 

[flateric]

heh-heh...

 

[Steve Pace]

The RQ-3A on display at the NMUSAF has the number 696 on its fuselage. Does anyone know if this number is a Lockheed factory production number, P-number or what? -SP

 

[bartenational]

Saw This at

National Museum of the US Air Force last weekend along with their expanded X planes on display.​

This RQ-3 blew my mind, not sure how that thing could be controlled? any info would be great.

 

[flateric]

AV-1 RAD event April 22,1996 screenshots

 

[Hydroman]

I was at the B-2 CTF that day it crashed. From what I understand, Boeing had the flight control software and there was no way to reject the takeoff, there were issues right from the git-go during the takeoff roll. We could smell the burning composite from South Base, got a nickname, Falling Star (one of the nicknames anyway). It was some time ago and anyone please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Archibald]

Trying to understand the whole story ... DarkStar was a scaled-down AARS / QUARTZ super-drone - itself the "real" SR-71 replacement in the 1980's ? trading speed for persistance, to try and pin down Soviet mobile ICBMs ?

 

[flateric]

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/search/843205/?q=darkstar&t=post&c[thread]=511&o=relevance

 

[Dew]

@Archibald

 

[Archibald]

ok -- https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/th...tems-w570-arrow-shadow.511/page-4#post-422885
Polecat shape too.

 

[CiTrus90]

With the original Lockheed-only effort being "a swept high aspect ratio flying wing with a pointy nose", similar to the X-56's shape.

Which gives me reason to believe that this picture taken in the house of former Lockheed's employees, where Ronnie Olsthoorn's rendition of the RQ-180 was put in a frame, was there more as a stand-in for a QUARTZ representation rather than to show the Northrop Grumman product.

 

[flateric]

I remember this one cranked kite concept that has appeared two times in AWST (2001 and 2003) long before SensorCraft development timeline was published, both times referred as 'one of Air Force concepts studied'. Note that both LM and NG have cranked kites HALE concepts studied and I guess LM flying wing SC have roots in AARS/Quartz

 

[Mike OTDP]

I was at the B-2 CTF that day it crashed. From what I understand, Boeing had the flight control software and there was no way to reject the takeoff, there were issues right from the git-go during the takeoff roll. We could smell the burning composite from South Base, got a nickname, Falling Star (one of the nicknames anyway). It was some time ago and anyone please correct me if I'm wrong.

It was basically a PIO issue. The flight control computers got out of phase with the airplane dynamics....with predictable results.

 

[Scott Kenny]

It was basically a PIO issue. The flight control computers got out of phase with the airplane dynamics....with predictable results.

How does that happen with computers?!?

 

[quellish]

How does that happen with computers?!?

Software