>>11930099>>11930108Blackstar very likely existed but the best case scenario for it's existence was probably echoing the XB-70 where it successfully completes a flight test program as a glorified testbed after the program was officially cancelled.
I'd bet money that Delta Clipper was intended to be a white-world successor to whatever Blackstar was, and I also wouldn't be surprised if Lockheed and the X-33 were selected for the shuttle successor program due to experience with composites and possible flight test articles that they probably built for blackstar.
If you want to feel better, remember that the most likely reason why Blackstar (or whatever it was actually called) hasn't been declassified, dug out of some hangar at Groom Lake, and sent to Wright-Pat or the Smithsonian where it belongs, is because the technologies and capabilities that it demonstrated were very likely the basis for successor systems that are probably still operational.
Also, I don't think that the SR-71 was actually ever officially replaced, but I wouldn't be surprised if the real reason why the A-12 was retired in 1968 after less than 5 years in service was because it was replaced by something that's still classified to this day.
