Blackstar (spacecraft) - Discussions of Similar Aircraft

Discussions of Similar Aircraft

During the 1970s, when studies were underway which led to the specification of the Space Shuttle, most leading US aerospace contractors explored orbital spaceplane designs, some based on a two-stage design. The most serious of these was the Lockheed HGV under the X-24C program, which was a manned hypersonic vehicle dropped from underwing a B-52, even to the point of rumors that it had actually been flight tested, according to Encyclopedia Astronautica. With the adoption of the Space Shuttle design, these avenues appear to have been abandoned. The use of a spaceplane as part of the launching system to replace the Space Shuttle has been suggested in programs such as VentureStar.

Some of the details of the SR-3 resemble the rumored Brilliant Buzzard or “Mothership” aircraft, but these were supposed to carry their second stage aircraft on top, rather than on the bottom as with the SR-3. This second stage was rumored to be Aurora, (a high-speed, high-altitude delta-winged aircraft), and the lengthening of runways at facilities such as Area 51 (taken by some as evidence of Aurora) could instead be necessary either to support SR-3's takeoff or XOV's landing. Most descriptions of Aurora, however, describe it as a hypersonic plane with exotic engine technology; the SR-3 described by Aviation Magazine is similar to existing rocket-powered aircraft. Pulse Detonation Engine (PDE) technology, visually apparent by donuts-on-a-rope contrail - and audibly by its deep bass pulsing boom noise, has been associated with these programs from eyewitness accounts during the 1990s.

In the late 1960s the North American Aircraft Corporation studied conceptual designs using the B-70 bomber for small space launch of an X-15 type rocket plane. These were abandoned as unpromising.

What is known, and a matter of public record, is that, through the 1980s and 1990s, the USAF did undertake a series of projects to study, research, develop and test demonstrator vehicles capable of SSTO (single-stage-to-orbit) and TSTO (two-stage-to-orbit) missions. These programs were code-named, in order, SCIENCE DAWN, SCIENCE REALM, COPPER CANYON, and COPPER COAST, and involved the development of three different competitive demonstrator vehicles. It was at the conclusion of COPPER CANYON's design phase that President Reagan proposed the X-30 NASP, which is claimed by the Blackstar story to have been used to pay for development of this spaceplane.

According to one declassified RAND Corp. report, two of the three vehicles failed to achieve their full flight envelope (i.e. couldn't make orbit), while the third, an "assisted SSTO", did achieve orbital capability. Furthermore, three code-named programs to design the stealthing of these three vehicles fell under the programs known as HAVE BLINDERS I, HAVE BLINDERS II, and HAVE BLINDERS III. All of these programs can be found in US military budget documents, with associated budget account numbers for years in the 1980s up into the late 1990s in the case of COPPER COAST, though the code name was dropped from the account number in the mid-1990s, even though many millions were budgeted up until recent years.

Whether any of these vehicles were individually code named "BLACKSTAR" is unknown at this time.