Movies - Colonial Blackbird

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	Movies - Colonial Blackbird

The Blackbird was a custom-built stealth-capable Viper from the reimagined Battlestar Galactica
series.

The Blackbird was designed by Chief Galen Tyrol in the second season episode, "Flight of the Phoenix".

After a scuffle between Tyrol and Lt. Karl "Helo" Agathon over torn feelings of their romantic involvements with the Cylon prisoner Sharon Valerii, the Chief proposes to his flight crew that they build a new fighter completely from scratch, using scrap parts and components from unsalvageable ships. However, his crew reacts pessimistically, reminding him of the multitude of tasks that building a new fighter would present (i.e. installing avionics and life support systems). The chief quickly dismisses them and procedes to build the fighter by himself.

After seeing the Chief struggle with assembly of the larger parts, the flight crew eventually joins him in the effort. Soon, many of the crew are involved in specific areas of its construction. Eventually, the superstructure and all internal systems for the ship are completed, but because of the scarce availabilty of metal, there is not enough left for the creation of a skin. Fortunately, Helo suggests that the skeleton be covered with a Carbon fiber composites which would render the fighter virtually invisible to the DRADIS radar system and possibly Cylon detection as well.

The flight crew unveil the Blackbird during a ceremony for Laura Roslin's reinstatement as President of the fleet after Commader Adama ended his military coup and settled his differences with her. In appreciation for Roslin's finding of the Tomb of Athena on Kobol and the path to Earth, the flight crew named the Blackbird Laura in her honor.

There are no projectile weapons such as those carried by the Vipers on the Blackbird. In fact she appears at first to be completely unarmed, but in the episode "Resurrection Ship, Part II", the fighter is shown to have a hardpoint for an external weapon. It's used only once: to deliver a antiship missile (probably a Viper-standard model such as those used to attack the Cylon refinery in season one) which is used to destroy the FTL drive on the Resurrection Ship.

Shortly after destroying the FTL drive on the Resurrection Ship, the Blackbird accidently collides with a Colonial Raptor and is destroyed. Capt. Apollo is piloting and ejects safely, though his pressure suit is ruptured by debris from the collision and he has a brush with death. So far, the Galactica crew has not built a second model.

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