Top Gun: Maverick’s Darkstar Arrives at Palm Springs Air Museum

By Adam Estes

As millions of moviegoers around the world sat for the opening of Top Gun: Maverick, we here at Vintage Aviation News were at the edge of our seats when Captain Pete Mitchell – callsign “Maverick” – flew the experimental Darkstar to the edge of Mach 10. But like the real aircraft developed by Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility, the Darkstar movie prop has spent much of its time away from prying eyes, save for an appearance at the Edwards AFB Aerospace Valley Expo in October of 2022. But now, airplane enthusiasts and movie fans alike can see the aircraft at the Palm Springs Air Museum (PSAM) in California, United States.

With their experience such projects as the U-2, A-12, SR-71 Blackbird, F-117 Nighthawk and future concepts such as the SR-72 hypersonic unmanned surveillance aircraft, the specialists at Lockheed-Martin’s Skunk Works put their decades of experience to work advising the production team with the construction of the Darkstar with the goal of making the movie prop as accurate to anything in hypothetical development as possible, and in doing so, it has captured the hearts of aviation and film enthusiasts alike.

The Darkstar (not to be confused with the Lockheed Martin RQ-3 Darkstar unmanned aerial vehicle) arrived on the flatbed of a trailer, being received with a water salute in a video posted by the PSAM on Friday, February 9th 2024. The film prop was also the talk of the museum’s annual fundraising gala as well, and will remain on a short-term loan from Lockheed Martin. “Obviously, we’d like it because we want to interpret it into our next-generation hangar we’re building to talk about hypersonics and stuff like that,” museum director Fred Bell said in an article for the Desert Sun, a local newspaper across the street from the museum. “I don’t know whether they’ll let us keep it or not, so we’ll see. It’ll be exciting if they do.”

The Darkstar was a popular part of the PSAM’s Heroes of Modern Tech Gala held on Saturday, Feburary 10th, which was held to raise funds for the Ronald M. Auen Learning Center.

Adam Estes

Raised in Fullerton, California, Adam has earned a bachelor's degree in history and is now pursuing his master's in the same field. Fascinated by aviation history from a young age, he has visited numerous air museums across the United States, including the National Air and Space Museum and the San Diego Air and Space Museum. He volunteers at the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino as a docent and researcher, gaining hands-on experience with aircraft maintenance. Known for his encyclopedic knowledge of aviation history, he is particularly interested in the stories of individual aircraft and their postwar journeys. Active in online aviation communities, he shares his work widely and seeks further opportunities in the field.

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