I was attending a reunion years ago in the 80's, and was at the bar with an old North American engineer that was on the XB-70 project. He got upset when I mentioned the airplane. He cursed Joe Walker, he said Joe was attempting a barrel roll around the XB-70 showing off in front of the cameras and hit the tails attempting to do so. Did he just have too much to drink? I have always wondered. But that's what he told me. He was probably in his 70's then, and I'm sure he's gone by now...
I saw this amazing aircraft in the air force museum in Dayton, Ohio. I went on a Tuesday. It was the day after Martin Luther King day. So, I had the place almost to myself! I took many pictures for around 6 or 7 hours. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I was leaving the building.
What an astounding aircraft it was, the beautiful XB-70! Only two were built though, and it flew less than 5 years, giving way to the remarkable B-52, which is still flying today! At $750 million per aircraft, no wonder only 2 were built, but it makes me wonder why, but I guess they decided to further the B-52, a marvelous aircraft that is still flying today! (It seems like Edwards AFB gets all the phenomenal aircraft, did then and still do today, 54 years later!) Well, it is a great place to test fly, due to good weather and fairly simple terrain. With one aircraft gone and the other in a museum, this video is a real treasure! The XB-70 was truly a SST before its time! Love the unusual design, raised nose and huge square intakes, canards behind the nose -- must have been very interesting to pilot that aircraft!
The XB-70 didn't give way to the B-52 as the BUFF was flying and the backbone of the Strategic Air Command, SAC, inventory for over a decade before the Valkyrie ever flew. Only two were built, because as you pointed out they were horrendously expensive to build and would have been even more costly to a maintain. That's not the only reasons the program was cancelled though. From the advent of guided missiles towards the end of World War 2 to when the Valkyrie was being developed and afterward missiles were flying faster, further, higher, and with better guidance with every year that past. Even before the Valkyrie flew for the first time Russian missile technology had already caught up with and was superseding the fastest highest flying aircraft that could be built at the time. Not only had the Russians developed a missile that could potential shoot down the Valkyrie they were also developing a Mach 3 interceptor in the MIG-25 Foxbat at the same time as the Valkyrie was being test flown. The other nail in the coffin of the Valkyrie project was the steady progress of intercontinental ballistic missile development. The deployment of the Atlas, Titan, Minuteman, and Polaris ballistic missiles promised to deliver far more weapons on a platform that was nearly immune to interception than the Valkyrie could ever hope to achieve. The Valkyrie was a magnificent aircraft, but she was obsolete almost before she got off the drawing board.
@David Vance Concorde wasn't pulled from service for anything like superstition. It was simply her operating cost and very limited availability that cost her the place in the sky. Only 16 of these aircraft every graced the skies, being limited to trans-oceanic routes, and the need for very specialized equipment to handle them all hurt her continued use. The downturn after the September 11th attacks really hurt the airline industry as a whole. As stated in one of the Concorde documentaries I remember watching she was simply, "champaign in a beer market".
I saw/read a declassified disposition document for decomissioned Air Force inventory. On it were 4 of these birds with a 5th still in active duty on loan to the CIA. That document was later pulled from public view. The unfortunate crash of the second XB-70 during a promotional photo op in no way indicated a problem with the aircraft. The contract to build these was satisfied.
@@jeshkam It was a British cold war jet fighter bomber that unfortunately never made it past a couple of prototype airframes as it was scrapped when Edward Heath became the British Prime Minister. Google.....very cool looking bird.
@MrLewisbate I totally disagree with you about the XB-70 not being great... It was a great engineering and design achievement. North American Aviation was at the cutting edge of aviation technology as a company in all it's designs.... P-51, F-100, F-107, A-5, F-108 The XB-70 was designed to fly at over 65,000 feet while cruising at Mach 3+. It utilized compression lift; creating a forebody shockwave and trapping its propulsive energy with moveable wing tips that in themselves were the largest moving surfaces ever installed on an aircraft. The XB-70 itself was the largest and heaviest air vehicle to fly at the altitudes and speeds it was being tested, and the first in its class. The propulsion system utilized the largest variable geometry inlet system ever designed, fully automated on AV-2, and a six engine combination that pushed the aircraft to sustained Mach 3 speeds for over 90 minutes - that's New York to London in 1.5 hours, over 3300 feet per second, which is as fast as a bullet; a 450,000 pound bullet... It did not fail in its design. It was an ambitious project that advanced the state of the art in large high speed aircraft. It was an experimental aircraft that challenged the best engineers, airframe manufactures, engine designers, and did it all in a era when high speed computing was a slide-rule, computers were in there infancy, and data collecting was on reel to reel magnetic tape. It only "fell to bits" during a mid-air collision during a photo shoot, not due to a systems failure. It did sustain damage on several flights, still landing safely, but that's the nature of an "X" plane pushing the state of the art. Had funding continued into production it would have been a truly amazing aircraft. Yes, it was expensive, but it was not a failure. And it was indeed great! Exceedingly great! Just consider the science and engineering that went into putting a 500,000 lbs aircraft at 70,000 feet traveling at 3300 feet per-second for 90 minutes. That to me is an amazing achievement for it's time. We have not done it since..., sadly. But much was gained in the effort.
1:55 what a great sound. 2:35 interesting footage of the wings 4:55 another great perspective The roll out and 16:00 that must be great for the visitors.
My favorite plane, by far. Amazingly useful video engineering specs, the shockwave explanation in inlets!! Why are the tires dull silver in appearance?
Why? In 1964, the Soviets had air defense missiles and supersonic interceptors. They also had a significant capacity for nuclear retaliation. The B-70 bomber was a plane that even American leaders had doubts about.
I could watch this valuable history all day long.
This content never gets old...
I was attending a reunion years ago in the 80's, and was at the bar with an old North American engineer that was on the XB-70 project. He got upset when I mentioned the airplane. He cursed Joe Walker, he said Joe was attempting a barrel roll around the XB-70 showing off in front of the cameras and hit the tails attempting to do so. Did he just have too much to drink? I have always wondered. But that's what he told me. He was probably in his 70's then, and I'm sure he's gone by now...
I saw this amazing aircraft in the air force museum in Dayton, Ohio. I went on a Tuesday. It was the day after Martin Luther King day. So, I had the place almost to myself! I took many pictures for around 6 or 7 hours. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I was leaving the building.
What an astounding aircraft it was, the beautiful XB-70! Only two were built though, and it flew less than 5 years, giving way to the remarkable B-52, which is still flying today! At $750 million per aircraft, no wonder only 2 were built, but it makes me wonder why, but I guess they decided to further the B-52, a marvelous aircraft that is still flying today!
(It seems like Edwards AFB gets all the phenomenal aircraft, did then and still do today, 54 years later!) Well, it is a great place to test fly, due to good weather and fairly simple terrain. With one aircraft gone and the other in a museum, this video is a real treasure! The XB-70 was truly a SST before its time! Love the unusual design, raised nose and huge square intakes, canards behind the nose -- must have been very interesting to pilot that aircraft!
The XB-70 didn't give way to the B-52 as the BUFF was flying and the backbone of the Strategic Air Command, SAC, inventory for over a decade before the Valkyrie ever flew. Only two were built, because as you pointed out they were horrendously expensive to build and would have been even more costly to a maintain. That's not the only reasons the program was cancelled though. From the advent of guided missiles towards the end of World War 2 to when the Valkyrie was being developed and afterward missiles were flying faster, further, higher, and with better guidance with every year that past. Even before the Valkyrie flew for the first time Russian missile technology had already caught up with and was superseding the fastest highest flying aircraft that could be built at the time. Not only had the Russians developed a missile that could potential shoot down the Valkyrie they were also developing a Mach 3 interceptor in the MIG-25 Foxbat at the same time as the Valkyrie was being test flown. The other nail in the coffin of the Valkyrie project was the steady progress of intercontinental ballistic missile development. The deployment of the Atlas, Titan, Minuteman, and Polaris ballistic missiles promised to deliver far more weapons on a platform that was nearly immune to interception than the Valkyrie could ever hope to achieve. The Valkyrie was a magnificent aircraft, but she was obsolete almost before she got off the drawing board.
@David Vance Concorde wasn't pulled from service for anything like superstition. It was simply her operating cost and very limited availability that cost her the place in the sky. Only 16 of these aircraft every graced the skies, being limited to trans-oceanic routes, and the need for very specialized equipment to handle them all hurt her continued use. The downturn after the September 11th attacks really hurt the airline industry as a whole. As stated in one of the Concorde documentaries I remember watching she was simply, "champaign in a beer market".
1.7 Billion for one B1!!!!
Finally got to see this plane two weeks ago at Wright Patterson. Incredible aircraft even today.
I saw/read a declassified disposition document for decomissioned Air Force inventory. On it were 4 of these birds with a 5th still in active duty on loan to the CIA. That document was later pulled from public view. The unfortunate crash of the second XB-70 during a promotional photo op in no way indicated a problem with the aircraft. The contract to build these was satisfied.
The XB-70 is the MOST impressive aircraft EVER build.
i was under it last night 2/4 2019
I'd say it was on a par with the TSR-2.
@@markcharlton4188 What's TSR-2? Never heard of that one before...
@@jeshkam It was a British cold war jet fighter bomber that unfortunately never made it past a couple of prototype airframes as it was scrapped when Edward Heath became the British Prime Minister. Google.....very cool looking bird.
@MrLewisbate I totally disagree with you about the XB-70 not being great...
It was a great engineering and design achievement. North American Aviation was at the cutting edge of aviation technology as a company in all it's designs.... P-51, F-100, F-107, A-5, F-108
The XB-70 was designed to fly at over 65,000 feet while cruising at Mach 3+. It utilized compression lift; creating a forebody shockwave and trapping its propulsive energy with moveable wing tips that in themselves were the largest moving surfaces ever installed on an aircraft. The XB-70 itself was the largest and heaviest air vehicle to fly at the altitudes and speeds it was being tested, and the first in its class. The propulsion system utilized the largest variable geometry inlet system ever designed, fully automated on AV-2, and a six engine combination that pushed the aircraft to sustained Mach 3 speeds for over 90 minutes - that's New York to London in 1.5 hours, over 3300 feet per second, which is as fast as a bullet; a 450,000 pound bullet...
It did not fail in its design. It was an ambitious project that advanced the state of the art in large high speed aircraft. It was an experimental aircraft that challenged the best engineers, airframe manufactures, engine designers, and did it all in a era when high speed computing was a slide-rule, computers were in there infancy, and data collecting was on reel to reel magnetic tape.
It only "fell to bits" during a mid-air collision during a photo shoot, not due to a systems failure. It did sustain damage on several flights, still landing safely, but that's the nature of an "X" plane pushing the state of the art. Had funding continued into production it would have been a truly amazing aircraft. Yes, it was expensive, but it was not a failure. And it was indeed great! Exceedingly great! Just consider the science and engineering that went into putting a 500,000 lbs aircraft at 70,000 feet traveling at 3300 feet per-second for 90 minutes. That to me is an amazing achievement for it's time. We have not done it since..., sadly. But much was gained in the effort.
1:55 what a great sound.
2:35 interesting footage of the wings
4:55 another great perspective
The roll out and 16:00 that must be great for the visitors.
Thanks for posting!
You can see the American space program in many of these tests and data collection processes.
Absolutely right. Most of the shuttle tech came out of these.
Most of the NASA techniques grew out of the USAF's test methodology
Good quality viz, thank you.
Thank you👍👍👍👍
Does anyone know where I can find all the progress reports? I'm so interested into the XB-70 and I'd love to watch them all.
My favorite plane, by far. Amazingly useful video engineering specs, the shockwave explanation in inlets!!
Why are the tires dull silver in appearance?
I believe it's because the tires have aluminum belting heavily incorporated in multiple layers, resulting in the metallic luster given off by them.
I believe it was a special coating applied to the tires to protect them from the very high heat the plane encountered at it's upper Mach levels.
One of the videos stated that they had an aluminum coating to protect them from the in-flight generated heat, up to 450f.
Tires have silver moon dust blended into the rubber.
@@jbidd8647 winner winner chicken dinner. They are very similar if not identical in construction to the A-12 & SR-71 tires.
BAAD ASS.....to the edge of technology!!!.....when we had the visions...
this is cool
Fantastic engineering ! I'd like to know more about the payload .
booms
Fun fact the co pilot later became an astronaut that flew the space shuttle
was it a skunk works airvcraft? North American ok I see
15:19 All those kids are like "we are gonna nuke the shit out of the Ruskies with this thing...…."
Soviets were shitting their pants
Why? In 1964, the Soviets had air defense missiles and supersonic interceptors. They also had a significant capacity for nuclear retaliation. The B-70 bomber was a plane that even American leaders had doubts about.
Not really. That's why only two were made.
If they had the avionics and computers we have today this thing would’ve been a lot more feasible.
It was feasible. It just didn't add that much to our offensive capabilites.