Full-sized mockups of the SA-43 Hammerhead were built. They were realistic enough that the Russian Intelligence got a satellite picture of one on the dock somewhere in California and had a temporary freak out.
The interesting photos in this post feature the SA-43 Hammerhead, the US Marine Corps (USMC) spaceship featured in Space: Above and Beyond, a 90s SciFi that had a bad time slot.
As explained by FANDOM, ‘The SA-43 Endo/Exo-Atmospheric Attack Jet (“Hammerhead”) is the main-stay of the Marine Corps. Their SCRAM engines enable them to fly in an atmosphere and the almost complete vacuum of space. Following the modular design of aircraft of the late 20th century, Hammerheads can be adapted for normal combat, search and rescue, and possibly other missions. The canopies of the craft are also detachable allowing docking with space platforms. Systems that are known to exist in the Hammerheads include LIDAR (Laser Infrared Detection And Ranging), HUD (Heads-Up Display), and ODP (Optical Disk Playback).
‘Deployment in combat missions (Combat Space Patrol), interception, Close Air Support (CAS), and Colonial Defense, but can also be adapted for SAR (Search and Rescue).
‘The SA-43 has various modular components, easily replaced in case of malfunction. The canopies are detachable, enabling the craft not only to dock on board carriers [the USS Saratoga was a space “carrier” home for the Hammerheads in Space: Above and Beyond], but also on various types of space stations. The cockpit usually is lifted up to the flight deck (hence smaller decks are possible). It also doubles as an escape pod in case of midair emergency.’
Full-sized mockups of the SA-43 Hammerhead were built. They were realistic enough that the Russian Intelligence got a satellite picture of one on the dock somewhere in California and had a temporary freak out.
Photo by FANDOM and ByYourCommand.net