XB-70 "Valkyrie Bomber" Pictures...

I found these while surfing the net.

Enjoy...








external image











There you go... by the way, does anyone know what become of the XB-70 Valkyrie program?

[edit on 4-5-2005 by Seekerof]

yeah i think it got cancelled because during a photo shoot, a
f-104 starfighter collided with the xb-70 and causeing it to crash

Nice pics!

The XB-70 program suffered failure after the second test aircraft crashed after suffering a midair collision in 1965, barely a year after the first test aircraft flew. The first aircraft flew until 1969 until the program was cancelled during budget cuts.

www.aerospaceweb.org...
www.wpafb.af.mil...

That's the F-104 in the third picture, shortly before it got caught in wingtip vortex & wiped out both upper stabilisers (and some wing?) of XB-70 AV/2. 1 of the b-70's 2 man crew died (his first flight in the program) and the f-104 pilot. Tragic.

AV/1 ->





[edit on 13/3/05 by Dew]

Whoa, I didn't know it was that bad. Seems very accident prone, alot like the Osprey or F-111, !

accident prone? if itr is accident prone after one crash then the rest of the planes in the world must be calamitous.

Actually it wasn't cancelled after the crash or even after years of test flying as has been said. It was regraded from bomber programme to experimental status before the prototype even flew

This site is a good for general info.

I got this book - it's superb!




...This one is also very good!




[edit on 13/3/05 by Dew]

Yeas Waynos is right, i don't think a few test crashes condone the plane to accident prone but then again who sees experimental planes dropping out of the sky like bugs after a can of raid. Pilots though, poor brave bastards

Not to bitch too much, but the third picture shows a F-4 Phantom (Presumed RF-4) and a T-38 Talon.

GZ,

Try on the other side of the formation????

Cheers

BHR

D'oH! how could I have missed that?!!!!

... and an F-104N (NASA serial number 013) and an F5A. All GE powered - it was a photo shoot. (F4 was a 'B')

[edit on 13/3/05 by Dew]

This is perhaps one of the top 5 most sophisticated and amazing aircrafts ever built. from the first jet engineThis baby was design late 50's early 60's. only about 10 years . What a major accomplishment. Mach 3, sonic boom wave rider, nuclear bomber. Damn, I wish this baby would have gone into production. Could you imagine a surpirse air show flyby of a newly built one, crowd would flip out!

And the f-104 was called the Starfigher if i remember correctly. I saw one hanging at the smithsonian in D.C. and man, this thing look like a rocket with wings!

Train

[edit on 13-3-2005 by BigTrain]

funny you should say that - here's another NASA 104....




btw - slightly off topic, but I went to see the 'Last of Starfighters' at Grazzanise just north of Naples last September. Last active squadron in the world - I think they;ve retired now. They did a couple of night time scramble take-offs - unbelievable! Afterburner flames from standstill to 10,000 feet!

[edit on 13/3/05 by Dew]

Look at it, delta wings and what is commonly accepted as what a modern hypersonic looks like. Yes the Valkeryie was cancelled but the technical side of the program never stopped. From artists renderings the Aurora is the modern version of the XB70. It makes sense. Perfect sense. I strongly believe that the Aurora is actually a Northrop Grumman project not Lockheed. The B-2 was thought to be a lockheed project for most of the time it was in development. Most thought only Lockheed could come up with such awesome tech. Its maddeninig that after a full decade and more of Auroras theorised existence that it hasnt been publicly unveiled. The B-2 is so advanced nobody will have any real defence against it for another 20-30 years. We unveiled that in the late eighties.

Text

Every description of a real possible Aurora sighting describes something like an XB70. It makes no sense whatsoever to cancel such an awesome weapon just because another plane flew into it. No way. Just looking at the old XB pix gives me chills. How flat out awesome of a machine. Unstoppable at speed. The XB may also have been the first succesfull shot at replacing the SR71. Makes no sense at all to mothball em. They are probably still greased up and ready to go.

Text

For you doubters. Take every credible Aurora sighting and compare the physical characteristics to the XB. The similarities are chilling. The Aurora is just the modern hypersonic XB. I do not doubt speed above mach 10 at all.

Alot of people always ask the question, "What would you be if you could be anything?" and I always answer, the guy who knows everything about every black project and is in charge of them. This desire to know the classified aircraft tech has been infused in my bones forever. I search these threads and the web almost everyday for something new. They need to release a new fighter or aurora or something, it killing me!!!!!!!

You just have a feeling that the valkyrie used its tech on something else, you just know it.

Train

The way it went down is BOTH competed for the ATB contract. Northrope won for many reasons, the two main ones as I understand them were that it incorporated technologies that the L/M one did not and L/M had already won the F-117 contract. The rumor I have heard is that the high voltage drag reduction/stealth inhancement of the Northrop design pushed it over the top.




Ehhh? From what I have heard they have a lot of differences. For example the Aurora would likely use a blended wing/body. The Aurora would NOT have forward canards, and would almost certainly not have folding wings.





I must say I agree with you on this. To me it makes no sense to design an aircraft like the Aurora without building it to have a weapons payload because the USAF wants the ability to hit targets quickly.

FWIW, the remaining XB-70 is in the USAF museum at Wright-Patterson AFB, near Dayton, OH.

It's a work of art.

Well, I don't know if the technology from the XB-70 is being used in the Aurora, but from my knowledge of the sightings, the two planes are completely different. Many observers have reported the Aurora is essentially a black triangle, with 2 distinctive, "bulbus" air intake vents on the sides. Anything resembling the XB-70 would much easier to recognise, as its features are more visible, the Concorde Nose, the air intakes on the fuselage, the stabilising fins, and the flat triangular rear exhaust.

All I'm saying is that I highly doubt the XB-70 has now been converted into the Aurora aircraft, while they may have borrowed technology, I doubt the XB-70 design is still used.

Compare these photos/graphics of the Aurora and XB-70:

Alleged Aurora Sighting:



Common Aurora Concept Drawing:



Now compare the Valkyrie:



Similar yet different...

Yes, If you look at the pic where the Valkyrie is in formation with the other foighters, F-4 etc. This was taken minutes before the death od a beautiful aircraft. Very very sad indeed, from a pilots perspective the Valkyrie was a dream boat. Oh well! Parts of her live on in the B-1.