A hypersonic jet developed by Lockheed Martin Corporation featured in the upcoming Top Gun: Maverick movie bears striking resemblance to a top-secret stealth jet. James Taiclet CEO of the US aircraft manufacturer confirmed that the producers of the movie collaborated with Skunk Works, a secret subsidiary of Lockheed Martin.
The 'fictional' Darkstar hypersonic jet appears to be developed on the rendition of the much-anticipated SR-72 hypersonic jet. When Skunk Works was reached out for a comment on this fictional design by The War Zone, they were redirected to a LinkedIn post by Taiclet, made after the world premiere preview showing of the movie at the US Navy's Naval Air Station North Island's Lowry Theater in San Diego, California, this week.
His post revealed that the Vice President and General Manager of the Skunk Works, John Clark had his team "partnered with Top Gun's producers to bring cutting-edge, future-forward technology to the big screen" and further highlighted their "critical work in hypersonic flight."
This revelation comes after John Neilson, a Lockheed Martin executive, and the Director of Communications for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, tweeted last month that the fictional Darkstar jet could provide a "sneaky peak at what might be the Lockheed Martin SR-72."
Joseph Kosinski, the film's director, told Sandboxx News, "the reason we approached Skunk Works is that I wanted to make the most realistic hypersonic aircraft we possibly could. As you saw, we built it full-scale in cooperation with them."
He explained the work of the Skunk Works engineers who designed the entire aircraft and said, "the reason it looks so real is that it was the engineers who helped us design it are the same people who are working on the real aircraft."
The EurAsian Times revealed the director had stressed the authenticity of the fictional aircraft's appearance as it had to match with the actual F/A-18 and the P-51 platforms featured in the movie. "It had to look just as real as the F-18s, the P-51, and everything else in the movie for you to buy it, so that's why we worked closely with them," he said.
SR -72 also known as 'Son of the Blackbird' is the scion of the legendary SR-71 Blackbird spy plane which broke speed records in 1976 as it flew from New York to London in less than two hours. According to the company's website, the former is currently in the developmental stage in California and would be operative by 2030.
Being widely publicized by Lockheed Martin since 2016, the Son of the Blackbird boasts an unmanned reusable hypersonic military aircraft capable of conducting intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), in addition to strike missions.
The Daily Mail reported the SR-72 is expected to be similar in size to an F-22 and powered by a full-scale, combined-cycle engine. As per the Aircraft Manufacturer, the jet can fly at speeds up to Mach 6 or six times the speed of sound which implies that its high speed would render the enemy powerless.
