Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Defense Department Unveils Pilotless Spy Plane to Public : Aviation: The saucer-shaped DarkStar is designed to have a range of 500 miles and to stay aloft for more than eight hours.

The premiere of the Department of Defense’s latest prize looked like a scene from a science fiction B movie.

As an anxious crowd waited on Thursday, the lights dimmed, the fog machine started up and a black curtain drew back to reveal DarkStar, a saucer-shaped aircraft illuminated by eerie, orange lights.

But Maj. Gen. Kenneth R. Israel is grateful that DarkStar, a pilotless spy plane, is not fiction.

“In the next century, we will definitely rely more on pilotless aircraft to place people out of harm’s way,” Israel said. “We need to know what’s on the battlefield before we get on the battlefield.”

The public unveiling of the craft took place at a hangar at the Lockheed/Martin Skunk Works plant where it was built. DarkStar was designed to surpass all other U.S. reconnaissance aircraft in its ability to avoid detection, scan territory and remain aloft for long periods of time, officials said.

“It would be survivable over Bosnia and with no risk to any pilots or crew,” said Harry Berman, project manager for the Advanced Research Projects Agency, a Department of Defense arm overseeing the project.

Automatic from takeoff to landing, the rudderless DarkStar was designed to have a range of 500 miles from its launch site and to stay aloft for more than eight hours at altitudes of 45,000 feet and above. During flight, ground controllers will use satellite transmissions to reprogram the aircraft using satellite transmissions.

The craft has a wingspan of 69 feet and fuselage length of 15 feet, but is only 5 feet high. It has a cruising speed of about 180 m.p.h.

Even Air Force jockeys, who often complain that drones steal their thunder, said they respected the DarkStar.

“This is the real thing,” said Air Force Lt. Col Jim Greenwood, a project consultant who flew reconnaissance missions for four years in the SR-71 Blackbird. “When you’ve got a pilot, he’s only going to stay awake for so long.”

Using synthetic aperture radar and electro-optical cameras, DarkStar will supposedly be able to spot a basketball on the ground at 45,000 feet, even in inclement weather, officials said. It will be able to scan 1,600 nautical square miles at a time, allowing military forces on the ground to pinpoint enemy troop movements and launch ground-based missiles with pinpoint accuracy.

DarkStar is the nickname for what is officially called the Tier III Minus unmanned aerial vehicle. The aircraft is one of two being developed by Lockheed/Martin and Boeing Aircraft of Seattle as part of a $124-million program.

Lockheed designed and developed DarkStar’s 8,600-pound body, while Boeing developed and tested the wing systems. The aircraft is powered by a single turbo fan engine supplied by Williams International.

The DarkStar program, which is the first in a series of government/industry cooperative ventures designed to develop new technologies more quickly and at less cost, is four months ahead of schedule, officials said.

“This thing is ready to taxi tomorrow,” said Israel.

Flight tests will begin in August at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. Officials estimate testing will be completed by 1998, after which the Defense Department will decide how many DarkStars to order. Each will cost an estimated $10 million.

DarkStar could have non-military uses, also, officials said. “Let’s say we had a situation that was an environmental situation like we had in Chernobyl,” Israel said.

“Do we have anything now that could fly safely over there?”