First Flight of the Valkyrie

[RJH57]

52 years ago, the North American XB-70 Valkyrie made its maiden flight (September 21, 1964). The prototype XB-70 was the fastest, largest, heaviest, and most powerful aircraft of its day.
https://1drv.ms/i/s!AkGpC4yjaS1olAbZXxLici6bRXKd

[Hajo]

The last one  (they made two ,one crashed when clipped by a chase plane)  is in Dayton at the Air Force Museum.

[Oldman731]

The last one  (they made two ,one crashed when clipped by a chase plane)  is in Dayton at the Air Force Museum.

I was there they day they brought it in.

- oldman

[SIK1]

Beautiful plane, and a technological marvel.   
All the coolest things came from 1964.   

 
Sik

[icepac]

My dad had to declare an emergency for a failing engine and landed there the day of the roll out of the B70.

He got to see the plane but his main target was the catering.

[zack1234]

Was it like the Concorde which the US despised?

[Hajo]

Was it like the Concorde which the US despised?

It was a unique aircraft developed at the time when rockets were going into service.  It had fold up wing tips (large ones) and was very very fast.

It was discontinued because of rocket development.  No need for it.

[DaveBB]

The program was extremely expensive, that was probably it's main downfall.  Also computing technology wasn't quite advanced enough for it.  At full speed, the auto-pilot couldn't keep the plane level.  At mach 3, even a tiny deviation resulted in a +/- 1000fpm change in altitude.  I'm not sure what made the SR-71 so much different, perhaps a more stable design.

[Rino]

     I noticed the last time I visited Wright-Patt, that the nose of the XB-70
had a jack under the the bird supporting it.  There was also a very long crack
clearly visible where the wings met the fuselage.

     It might have been a temporary thing as none of the photos I can find of
it show the jack <it's not exactly tiny >

[Hajo]

Rino I saw the same thing.  I saw a couple of B52s that had wrinkles in their fuselage.  They're getting old too!

[Rino]

     Yeah, I can believe it, especially after seeing the ribs they put on the
tails of old KC-135s to support their wrinkly old ###es 

     Phantoms got old, but you didn't notice wrinkles so much.  I was told
when I was in back in the 80s that the F-4 had a design service life of
about 1000 flight hours.  The youngest bird in my squadron had 3200 and
the oldest almost 4500!

      Like seeing those Mercedes medalions they put on the grills...keep on
ticking.

[zack1234]

Rocket plane

[Sabre]

I was stationed at Wright-Patterson AFB from 91 to 93, and the XB-70 had the jack supporting the nose even back then. Just seeing that one A/C is worth the trip to WPAFB (and entry is free). The thing is a friggin' Imperial star destroyer, up close! They also have a B-36...also worth seeing all on it's own.

There were two flying prototypes. They had to come up with new, high-temperature formulas for the exterior paint, as the air friction at the speeds it was capable would blister the standard A/C paint of the day. Gad, but it is one beautiful airplane! The program was cancelled after one of the two had a mid-air with a chase-plane and crashed. However, this event probably just gave them the justification they needed to cancel the program. It was extremely expensive, and just too far ahead of its time. Plus, there was a debate raging at the time of whether, even at its high speeds and altitudes, it could have been survivable as a high-altitude penetration bomber. The low-alt, TFR attack profile was gaining prominence, in the face of ever-improving Soviet AA missile defenses.