View Full Version : Historical Aircaft - XB-70 Valkyrie.
I have wanted to write a thread for a while about the XB-70 Valkyrie for a while, but never had in my possession any truely unique photographs / pictures until now.
These pictures range from early conceptual art before the Valkyrie, actual Valkyrie art and final drawings. They then progress into the building and testing phase, and finally there is a large mixture of photographs from all periods of the flight test for both the USAF and NASA.
So, without further ramblings, here is I hope an eye opener into the glorious aircraft that was the XB-70 Valkyrie.
We start with drawings of pre-XB-70 designs.
The wings actually detached for the high speed flight portion, think of wing sized drop tanks! Next, another potential design to fufill the USAF requirements.
Then the design was refined...
Note the single tail.
Design was solid, so they made a final mock up to gauge the size and scope of the challenges ahead.
Here are two shots of the wind tunnel model.
Wind tunnel models all completed, they started making AV-1 piece by piece, and putting it all together in a particle beam welded jigsaw puzzle.
This is the nose section. The sheer scale of the airframe is already apparent!
Nose and body section mated.
from the other end...
The sheer scale is amazingly apparent from these two pictures.
This next pictures truely amazing. Look at the vast area of the body and wing - truely epic in scale.
From another angle.
To give an idea of scale, here is one side of the air intake.
Fitting the massive engines...
Cockpit in the first test vehicle.
And then it was done.
Then came the press rollout for the first public glimpse of this monsterous wonder.
Press release aside, time for taxi tests.
Here can be seen prepping for the first test flight.
First flight!
However the flights were not all smooth, and inevitable tething troubles happend.
Tyres burst!
Then after the lower speed flights came higher speed envelope.
Then at high speeds an interesting problem came to light; the paint applied was too thick and peeled away badly!
So then after Av1 was a success, AV2 was rolled out and put into testing.
and was into flight within days.
However, in testing a catastrophic ingestion into the engines destroyed all six, and although the craft managed to limp home, all six engines and intake needed refurbishment.
However it was back in flight soon after.
These led to many high and fast tets for both the USAF and later NASA.
Up close in high speed flight.
High and fast for NASA (Time jump, but nice pics ;) )
I particularly like this shot of the 70 over a very early Edwards Airforce base. Do note - there is an A-12 on the apron!
and then tragedy occured with loss of lives, and the final programme was rolled into a slow demise, and then......
The last ever flight, here is seen the surviving airframe landing for the very last time before storage and entering the museum.
A gloriouse mach 3 ride, full of design feats and engineering skills beyond what many thought possible, and it left behind a legacy of technological breakthroughs and material science that is still valid today.
Oh, and one strange thing it left as a legacy? Stealth IR paint that defeated then current Soviet IR search and track systems: borne as a result of the USAF wanting to reduce not the radar signature, but more importantly the IR and thermal footprint for its potential mach 3 nuclear bomber.
Now I have shared all I wanted to, I would love to make this a place for all your XB-70 pictures! oh and I hope the thread has been an enjoyable brief flick through an amazing technology leap in aviation history.
Tokamak
09-30-2009, 08:08 AM
It has, great thread. Thank you for sharing. Do you have more information on the airplane, what were they trying to achieve?.
It has, great thread. Thank you for sharing. Do you have more information on the airplane, what were they trying to achieve?.
The XB-70 was designed to be a Mach 3 intercontinental bomber that would fly high and fast enough to stay out of Soviet missile and fighter reach as it went on its missions.
(The thought being that at the time, Soviet systems had limited reach and intercept ability, and so high and fast was seen as excellent survival means. This came to an abrupt end with Soviet long range and more importantly accurate radar guided SA missiles)
NASA then took the vehicles into its design portfolio, and started on with the begginings of a super sonic transport aircraft project, but the XB-70 was not a transport for humans in any comfort unless they were the crew!
That said, the knowledge of high speed compression lift and other aerodynamic events did lead to many airframes that NASA flew later being safer, faster and more efficient.
Today it would be labelled a hybrid 'wave rider' and with our engines and materials? a six engined monster like this would be pushing mach 8 easily.
Zoomie
09-30-2009, 09:37 AM
Other Valkyrie threads:
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=142098&highlight=Valkyrie
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=114475&highlight=Valkyrie
Special-K
09-30-2009, 10:27 AM
Seems to me that we have almost taken a step backwards. We could do this decades ago. Why aren't we so much further ahead than we are now?
Regarding the nose of Valkerye, it seems rather similar to the nose of the F-111. Was there a design link between the two?
Also, IIRC, it was the XB-70 that indirectly lead to the F-15. The Soviets were terrified of the BX-70 and created the Mig-25 specifically to counter it. When the West learned of the Mig-25 we were scared of it's capabilities and developed the F-15 as a counter to the Soviet wonder jet.
-K
timetraveller
09-30-2009, 11:27 AM
Good array of Pic's
Prowler129
09-30-2009, 01:03 PM
most expensive aircraft per flight hour. total cost of program/number of flight hours equals 300+ million an hour
Prowler129
09-30-2009, 01:04 PM
Thanks for the pics, there are some that i hadn't seen. the leperous paint is the result of too many paintings to look good for "important" visitors, peeled off in flight from the high temps incurred.
domokun
09-30-2009, 02:10 PM
Also, IIRC, it was the XB-70 that indirectly lead to the F-15. The Soviets were terrified of the BX-70 and created the Mig-25 specifically to counter it. When the West learned of the Mig-25 we were scared of it's capabilities and developed the F-15 as a counter to the Soviet wonder jet.
-K
MiG-25's suspected performance was one of reasons that affected F-X program that developed in F-15. But it wasn't only affecting reason, bigger influence was how USAF lost too many dogfights to slower, simpler and more agile MiG-17's and MiG-21's in Vietnam. F-15 design specs were made from start to be more agile and to have better weapon systems than current or then projected Soviet fighters.
If we go bit further with indirect consequences of XB-70... then it also led to F-16 as it was lower cost fill in to F-15. F/A-18 as it was further development of F-16's alternative competitor YF-17.... Then we can also add MiG-29 and Su-27 as those were designed to beat F-15 and F-16 in all aspects, some of subsystems of those weren't originally up to task, but airframes surely were. Then those led to specifications of ATF-program, witch created F-22. On bombers, cancellation of B-70 led to B-1A, that meant to be low cost alternative Valkyrie. It's cancellation led to revised B-1B. p-)
TheEngineer
10-01-2009, 11:36 AM
thanks, cool thread!
T-5 Killer
10-01-2009, 01:52 PM
Awesome thread! Is there anyway to merge the Valkyrie threads?
Awesome thread! Is there anyway to merge the Valkyrie threads?
Hope so - they all have really awesome pictures :)
S70A_9
10-02-2009, 05:36 AM
Awesome post 2495 - what an amazing aircraft, great photos and good summary of it's development. I haven't seen some of those pics anywhere else before.
Thank you very, very much!
Special-K
10-02-2009, 03:39 PM
MiG-25's suspected performance was one of reasons that affected F-X program that developed in F-15. But it wasn't only affecting reason, bigger influence was how USAF lost too many dogfights to slower, simpler and more agile MiG-17's and MiG-21's in Vietnam. F-15 design specs were made from start to be more agile and to have better weapon systems than current or then projected Soviet fighters.
If we go bit further with indirect consequences of XB-70... then it also led to F-16 as it was lower cost fill in to F-15. F/A-18 as it was further development of F-16's alternative competitor YF-17.... Then we can also add MiG-29 and Su-27 as those were designed to beat F-15 and F-16 in all aspects, some of subsystems of those weren't originally up to task, but airframes surely were. Then those led to specifications of ATF-program, witch created F-22. On bombers, cancellation of B-70 led to B-1A, that meant to be low cost alternative Valkyrie. It's cancellation led to revised B-1B. p-)
And all from an aircraft that was cancelled before it was ever deployed.....
-K
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