The hypersonic Darkstar, by design, would be the most advanced airplane ever flown by any nation. One YouTube channel explored the plane in detail and everything related to the technology and traveling beyond Mach 4+.
Soviet's New Kind of Warplane
The Soviets were dead set on stumping the US air defense with immediate plans that could lob and launch nukes at the USA without getting stopped. The name Darkstar was termed by the Found and Explained channel.
DSB-LK will have a maximum ceiling of 114,000 feet and a range of 16,000 kilometers, based on where the aircraft would originate from in the USSR. According to Secret Projects UK, the plane limit is supposed to be Mach 4.
Arguments exist for the DSB-LK upper limits as the six VK-15M turbojet engines have only enough thrust to push it to Mach 2.8. For take-off, it needed 1,100 meters and a max speed of 335 km/h, with a landing speed limit of 190 km/h.
The prototype is a fused wing-body/fuselage approach seen in the Su-57. The plane's tubular middle body is linked with the wing. Its overall design differs from a flying wing, as seen on social media, reported EurAsian Times.
Hypersonic Bomber's Overall Aspects
Observers suggest from images that the airframes have a hidden inner weapons bay that can load cruise missiles with different load-outs, even a combo of bombs and missiles.
Six engines power hypersonic Darkstar with a delta wing and two stabilizers (tails) that are not for agility. It looks very future-forward in its design.
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Designed with streamlining to take out drag, but is not for tight maneuvers due to excellent airflow. Zooming faster and unstoppable at Mach 4+ into the target area, get in past aerial defenses the release the missile or bombs. It will streak out past helpless defenses that cannot detect it.
One more deadly task is to destroy a US carrier in a missile attack and zoom out faster than any US plane, and a Nimitz class will be a sitting duck. One point is that the DSB-LK is relatively big for a bomber, quite massive too. Another issue is that some airframes are intentionally made unstable for more agility. Keeping the airframe stable is an electronically controlled Flight Control System (FCS), precisely controlled avionics while in flight.
Titanium is abundant in Russia, the most durable steel for the DSB-LK, and resists heat at Mach 5+ speeds. The US had to fool the USSR to sell the metal for the SR-71 Blackbird, per War History Online.
The Russian Darkstar had a triangle shape with three engines in nacelles; the crew was three or four people. Its crew consisted of two pilots, a navigator, and a weapons operator (WSO) in separate cockpits. It could fight with two-gun turrets, one rear of the cockpit and over the exhaust. Per gun has 1,200 rounds. Five air-to-air missiles with a 10-kilometer range of attack. Capable from 5 to 15 tons of missiles or bombs, equipped with radar and Electronic Warfare (EW) and jamming systems.
Hypersonic Darkstar was too expensive, prompting the Soviets to choose another project, but it would have been unstoppable if built.
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