Taking a Transcontinental Flight in the Hypersonic Darkstar, Virtually

Ride along on a Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 journey in the semifictional scramjet based on the Lockheed SR-72 and flown by Tom Cruise in ‘Top Gun: Maverick.’

Patrick Chovanec

Friday, September 29, 2023 at 04:48 PM ET

Verified

The scramjet in the movie "Top Gun: Maverick" was roughly based on the Lockheed SR-72, which is supposedly in development. [Image courtesy of Patrick Chovanec]

Key Takeaways:

The article recounts a simulated cross-country flight in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 using the Darkstar scramjet from *Top Gun: Maverick*.
The author details the process of achieving hypersonic speeds, including specific maneuvers to break the sound barrier and activate scramjets at Mach 3.0, ultimately cruising at Mach 9.1 and 127,000 feet.
The simulated 2,000-mile journey from Miramar to Joint Base Andrews was completed in about 50 minutes, underscoring the potential of such hypersonic aircraft for rapid military reconnaissance and future civilian transport.

See a mistake? Contact us.

For this session in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 (MSFS2020), I’m going to be flying the semifictional Darkstar scramjet flown by Tom Cruise at the beginning of the 2022 film Top Gun: Maverick.

The flight I’ll be taking will be from Miramar (KNKX), the former location of the Top Gun academy outside San Diego, to Joint Base Andrews (KADW) outside of Washington, D.C. If I do everything right, the 2,000-mile trip should take just 25 minutes.