Posted on 03/06/2006 5:59:51 AM PST by DesScorp
For 16 years, Aviation Week & Space Technology has investigated myriad sightings of a two-stage-to-orbit system that could place a small military spaceplane in orbit. Considerable evidence supports the existence of such a highly classified system, and top Pentagon officials have hinted that it's "out there," but iron-clad confirmation that meets AW&ST standards has remained elusive. Now facing the possibility that this innovative "Blackstar" system may have been shelved, we elected to share what we've learned about it with our readers, rather than let an intriguing technological breakthrough vanish into "black world" history, known to only a few insiders. U.S. intelligence agencies may have quietly mothballed a highly classified two-stage-to-orbit spaceplane system designed in the 1980s for reconnaissance, satellite-insertion and, possibly, weapons delivery. It could be a victim of shrinking federal budgets strained by war costs, or it may not have met performance or operational goals.
(Excerpt) Read more at aviationnow.com ...
The XB-70 was a big plane.
Calypso Louie was right!
Thanks GLGB. I now have coffee on my shirt, keyboard, and desktop....
Boeing, eh?
I remember asking about the aurora to a Lockheed guy doing talks on the JSF, and his eyes kind of froze glazed up & said he could not talk about such things. To which I screamed in ethusiasm: so there is an Aurora! and he kind of kept frozen with a grin and then moved to the next question.
"Calypso Louie"....heh heh....
Seriously though....I saw the XB-70 as a child at Wright Pat in Ohio, and I've been in love ever since. Nothing quite like that plane...
You got lots of company. That was perhaps the most graceful-looking aircraft ever built, and I could never believe that they only built (and destroyed) three copies...
If this actually exists, I would expect that it is not functional for getting to orbit. Assuming the government had developed a new launch vehicle like this, NASA's shuttle woes would be solved. The launch system, in and of itself, should not need to be kept secret, since it is just another orbital delivery system. If elements of the system need to be classified that can still be done, even is the launch system were in civilian hands. The military allowed NASA to use the Redstone rocket for the Mercury program, and NASA used to handle classified military payloads on the shuttle, so a precedent for classified military hardware used in the civilian program already exists. While I have never been particularly impressed with government competence, the redundant launch systems would be incredibly wasteful.
Apparently the XB-70 was put out to pasture in the black world.
Sounds like the rumors generated about the "Aurora Project" when the SR-71 was retired.
For me, this story calls into question all of that UFO / alien tech / antigravity / black triangle stuff. Why would the US go to the trouble of building sort of a super secret space shuttle using conventional chemical rockets if they have this exotic tech?
Didn't they mothball both of these things years ago?
XB-70
bookmarking for hubby
I love to go to Wright-Patt to see that plane. The XB-70 and the B-36 are my favorite displays there.
Burt Rutan used the idea of employing another plane/jet to get his ship into a sub-orbital trajectory.
and it had a capability to carry nuclear bomb, if my memory is correct.
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