testtest

North American XB-70 Valkyrie — America’s Cold War Supersonic Speed Bomber

There is one of these on static display at the entrance of the USAF Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio. It is awesome to see up close, I thought it was one of the most beautiful airplanes I had ever seen.

It looks like they have now put it inside a new hangar.
 
Last edited:
The air turbulence coming off the XB-70 wasn't conducive to tight formation flying with the F-104 which wasn't known for its maneuverability.

What the aircraft designers did with math and a slide-rule were pretty amazing back-in-the day, and produced new designs a lot faster than the computer-designed aircraft of today.
 
Mike H. said:
Hello all, here is today's article posted on TheArmoryLife.com. It is titled “North American XB-70 Valkyrie — America’s Cold War Supersonic Speed Bomber” and can be found at https://www.thearmorylife.com/north-american-xb-70-valkyrie/.

Click to expand...
Excellent article. My uncle worked at North American for many years. His department had done some work on the X15.
He used to send me the latest photographs of their aircraft, which I still have!
 
The Valkyrie XB 70. My favorite Jet plane when I was a kid growing up. Loved it so much and through today that when the "internet of things" came into being I use it as my Moniker as you can plainly see. Amazing Engineering and Construction which was beyond it's time. Glad the one survived and is a Museum piece, safely displayed for all to see how far ahead we were and still are.
 
I was 9 when I saw the XB-70 on the tarmac at the National Air Force museum. It was on display as the new museum, had its open house in 1969. I loved it and it was my favorite plane at the open house. My family was staying in Fairborn across the street from the old museum, as my Dad was attending training at Wright Patterson for his civil service job.
 
You can definitely see from this design the ideas that were incorporated into the B1 program, which is what I grew up with as a kid. Assembled at least 1 or 2 model kits of 'The Bone' before stealth technology rendered the B-1's 'obsolete'. In fact, I believe we should keep making the B1B's as they are quite capable for conventional bombing campaigns especially low-level runs & NoE, which is why we used the B1B's extensively in Gulf Wars 1 & 2.

I was not in the Air Force - just a good 'ol ground-pounding Army MP, because I had to start wearing glasses in 8th grade. BUT... I like things with wings! Till I had to wear glasses, I'd entertained the idea of being a pilot or a space shuttle door gunner!

1725093924199.jpeg
Space Shuttle Door Gunners- Lg.png
 
Last edited:
MN.Militia said:
You can definitely see from this design the ideas that were incorporated into the B1 program, which is what I grew up with as a kid. Assembled at least 1 or 2 model kits of 'The Bone' before stealth technology rendered the B-1's 'obsolete'. In fact, I believe we should keep making the B1B's as they are quite capable for conventional bombing campaigns especially low-level runs & NoE, which is why we used the B1B's extensively in Gulf Wars 1 & 2.

I was not in the Air Force - just a good 'ol ground-pounding Army MP, because I had to start wearing glasses in 8th grade. BUT... I like things with wings! Till I had to wear glasses, I'd entertained the idea of being a pilot or a space shuttle door gunner!

View attachment 65480 View attachment 65481
Click to expand...
From MP to Space Door Gunner - very impressive!
 
One of my all time favorite planes. Maybe because of this "When the Valkyrie test bed flights ended in 1969, the remaining Valkyrie was flown to its final destination, the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright Patterson Air Force Base."

I was sitting in Drafting class at the Springfield/Clark County Ohio Joint Vocational School looking out the windows when this great big beautiful airplane came flying past along with a fighter escort. It was this XB-70 on it's last flight heading over to Wright Pat AFB about 25 miles west. I have seen a lot of different aircraft in my 70 plus years but I will never forget seeing that birb fly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top