A different Valkyrie you may not have seen....

[97ValkSteve]

North American Aviation XB-70 Valkyrie	powered by Aeva

One of the coolest aircraft ever IMHO.  Hope to go see it at the museum in Dayton someday. 

[tonyfan70]

I believe the Mig-25 was specifically designed to fight that particular bomber. Someday I'm going to go to the museum as well. Isn't it at Wright-Patterson AFB?

[Grumpy]

It has been in the museum at Wright Patterson for years, not in the main complex. Take the bus tour to the base to the research and development gallery where the presidents aircraft and the experimental stuff is stored. It is in there, I took pictures of it last year on the way home from Inzane in Bellaire, Mi.

[RainMaker]

Saw one when I was a young lad (in the mid '60s) at the Carswell AFB air show in Fort Worth.  I don't think they took it to air shows very often so it was pretty neat to see it land, go up an incredible number of steps to look in the cockpit and then to watch it taxi and take off.  I think the one I saw was the one that crashed later on in that photo op.

[iliveforcurves]

I've seen it, not in person though.  Have you noticed that Honda has been naming their bikes after U.S. military aircraft?  For example; Sabre, Nighthawk, Blackbird, and Valkyrie.  Maybe they got the idea from Suzuki when they came out with the 250cc Hustler in the 1960's.

[thumper]

They only built two prototypes.  The second one collided with it's chase plane and crashed. 

The program was scrapped when the Russians shot down Francis Gary Powers in his U-2 in 1960.

The idea of high altitude high speed penetration was gone forever.  From that day on B-52 pilots were trained for low level tree top penetration in order to deliver our nuclear weapons.

[thumper]

Thanks for posting this.  Still an amazing engineering feat when you figure the times and the technology available.

The irony is that the development of the B-70 Valkyrie gave rise to the development of the MIG 25 Foxbat which gave rise to the development of the F-15 Eagle...and so on and so on.....

[The Anvil]

They only built two prototypes.  The second one collided with it's chase plane and crashed. 

The program was scrapped when the Russians shot down Francis Gary Powers in his U-2 in 1960.

The idea of high altitude high speed penetration was gone forever.  From that day on B-52 pilots were trained for low level tree top penetration in order to deliver our nuclear weapons.

High altitude high speed penetration gone forever? Are you unfamiliar with the SR71? We were just getting started!

The advancement of ICBM technology doomed the nuclear bomber as the primary delivery means for nukes. Not the loss of a U2. We don't give up that easily. You're right about shifting focus to low level penetration for bombers though. The B1 was designed specifically for nap-of-the-earth penetration.

[Irish-Valk]

Ah Yea!
We had the 'Standard', we had the 'Tourer' and we had the 'Interstate'. That was to be the 'Inter-Continental' but it didn't really make it off the ground.