How Top Gun: Maverick's Darkstar may have fooled China

The long-awaited “Top Gun: Maverick” will fly into theaters later this month, and while most of the movie features very real U.S. Navy aircraft, there’s one exotic platform aviation buffs might not recognize: the hypersonic Darkstar.

Darkstar may not be a real airplane, but it certainly looks the part—so much so that the Navy apparently told Top Gun’s producer, legendary filmmaker Jerry Bruckheimer, that China re-oriented spy satellites to get a glimpse of the full-size mock-up they built for filming. How did they pull that off? Well... with a bit of help from Lockheed Martin's legendary Skunk Works.

Special thanks to Paramount Picture and Lockheed Martin for the use of their promotional materials in this video.

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[cenccenc]

somewhere in Eastern china, some Chinese "engineers" are scratching their heads at some fuzzy photos the bosses just sent them with a note that says, "build this or else". 😆

[Bad_Wolf_Media]

Five, 10 years from now, we'll all look back and make videos about how Lockheed and the movie makers fooled us all by showing the real, operational Darkstar aircraft while pretending it was just a mock-up.

[jenniferstewarts]

This is NOT the first time stuff like this has happened. From the movie Stealth, the FA-37 Talon got mistaken as a real aircraft not just by foreign but domestic intelligence groups. Pictures of the full sized model on a us carrier deck, had even Janes trying to figure out if it was a real fighter.

But even before that... One mock up almost lead to a war. Libya got wind of Tunisia building a large tank, hidden in the desert... overflights showed a huge tracked vehicle near the border and prompted Libya to threaten Tunisia with a pre-emptive strike and invasion if they did not pull back their... Jawa Sand Crawler.

No joke, the model as not a full sand crawler, just the tracks, but it was enough to convince Libya it was some sort of military vehicle being built and positioned for a strike against them.

[Fister_of_Muppets]

Just saw the movie last night in theater. First impressions of seeing the SR-72/Darkstar/Aurora whatever you want to call it, you could tell (in the hangar) it wasn't CGI. For those who haven't seen the movie, go see it. If you liked the original Top Gun, you'll love the sequel. The cinematography is incredible.

[nobodistribe]

My dad worked at Lockheed most of my life and had a "top secret" security clearance. They would send people to interview the neighbors to make sure he didn't share any secret information. He used to bring me these extremely powerful magnets they would recover from destroyed hard drives. I was a kid at the time and loved playing with them.

[markmatsushima]

There was a show back in the 90s called Space Above and Beyond. Essentially a near future where the US Navy and Marine Corps operated in space, etc. The workhorse of the show was the SA-58 “Hammerhead” exo-endo atmospheric fighter attack craft.

The show had to create several full sized realistic mock ups for use in filming. Apparently they were so realistic that the Russians and PRC were caught snooping around and photographing them!

[Istandby]

I helped build the F-117 for the movie Executive Decision.
We built the full size mockup. at California City Airport.
There were some helicopters from Edwards Air Force Base that flew over.
They called to Edwards about a downed F-117. All of a sudden the airport had military personnel all over the place.
Don't let this guy's words make this movie out to be more then it is.
The X-1 in the movie The Right Stuff was a full scale model also built by the people I worked with. So was the Spruce Goose in the movie Rocketeer. The Howard Hughes racer and many more model's were built by these people. All models look authentic. That's why they get paid very well.
I was paid $16, 000 for 8 days working on the F-117.

[Jon]

Part of me thinks the SR72/ Darkstar featured in the trailer is highly accurate but have sneaky feeling the actual 'black' aircraft was retired some years ago and were on to version 73-74

[jewelfewel]

You know if they are disclosing SR-72 then it's already outdated. Declassifying aircraft means its secrecy is no longer important, so they must have something better that is currently in service

[PaulGuy]

I remember back in the mid-80's, there was a "Stealth Bomber" model kit that was shaped like a flying wing. Then the plane was officially announced in 1988, looking surprisingly similar to the model kit.

[Yuki_Ika]

I would not surprised if "the real thing" is already flying in secret, but that is just my opinion, I cannot confirm or deny this

[kdrapertrucker]

Lockheed Martin probably agreed to help so they could park it where pictures could be obtained either by passersby, or by satellite. A counter espionage tactic partially funded by the movie company.

[hardwickd]

The same thing happened with the 1982 Clint Eastwood movie "Firefox". The full size mock up attracted attention from the Russians. What is even funnier is that the jet in the movie was suppose to be a new advanced Russian fighter.

[KevinColt]

Watched this movie 2 times already, gonna watch again tomorrow.
Its just that good.

[SmokesKwazukii]

it cannot be stressed enough that so much of the flying in this film is real and that is just super cool

So to clarify, did the PRC retask their satellite after their censors reviewed the movie and alerted their military about the Darkstar in the movie? Or, did they get wind of the Darkstar mockup via some other channel and try to photograph it, before learning from their censors it was just a movie prop?

Either way it's pretty hilarious. I hope the studio and Lockheed tried to hide it from the satellite, to make the whole thing seem even more suspicious.

[sloo]

I would say, there's a Darkstar but it's unmanned and Skunkworks is hiding a real secret within the secret. Like they usually do and their secret area of design and stuff for testing is somewhere else in testing or operation.

[LoremIpsum]

You forgot the U2... It still amazes me that the titanium for the SR71 came from the USSR. I wasn't much of a fan of the original film, but the training with F5s was interesting. And on that note, have you seen Ward Carroll's "The Secret Program That Hid an Even More Secret Program", I never knew MIGs were taken back to the US and used for training...

[Tao_Peace]

Fantastic movie! The way they can shoot movies these days is unreal! These actors physical condition with the flying was amazing! Beautiful filming with Val Kilmer and Tom! Those that have seen it will understand! Worth the wait!

[cpuuk]

I liked the painted Skunk on the Darkstar, but for me, the 'woah' moment was where Tom's Kawasaki GPz900 quietly turned into an H2.