Special Sub-Topic: The XB-70. Do you know the ways of the Valkyrie? Click Here To Play: The XB-70. Do you know the ways of the Valkyrie?

What was the name of the company that researched, designed, and finally developed the XB-70?

North American. North American, later North American Rockwell, designed and built the XB-70 Valkyrie as a bomber prototype. Twenty years after the Valkyrie was designed, flown, and finally cancelled, it later built the B1a and B1-b bomber.

What was the Valkyrie designed to do?

High altitude, high speed penetration nuclear bomber. The original design, issued by the USAF, called for an extremely high speed, high altitude bomber that could fly higher and faster than any interceptor of the time, and shower the then USSR with nuclear warheads. The Valkyrie was also required to have "intercontinental" range.

There were only two Valkyries ever built. Why?

During the construction of the second aircraft, the government redesignated the project to research.. Sadly and perhaps unfortunately, only two XB-70 Valkyries were ever built.

The Valkyrie was the first aircraft to employ a revolutionary material composite in it's construction. Designed to withstand the extreme heat and stress encountered in its flight enviroment, it was called:

Stainless steel honeycomb and Titanium. Some of the outer skins used on the airplane were less than .007" (Seven one thousanths!) of an inch thick!

OK, here's a tough one. What was the tail number of the first Valkyrie? (USAF designation #)

20001. Ship one held the tail number 20001. Ship two was designated 20207.

How many tires did the Valkyrie have? (Hint: Not all were used to support the weight of the plane!)

12. There were a total of 12 tires in all, four on each of the main landing gears and two on the nose wheel. However, on the main gears closest to the aircraft center of gravity, there were two smaller "bogie" tires that were used to assess ground speed, anti-lock functions for the brakes, and other data.

Needless to say, the tires on the Valkyrie needed to be very special and tough in order to be able to withstand the enormous weight of the aircraft, as well as the ferocious heat of high MACH flight. How were they built to cope with these problems?

They were made of aluminum impregnated 48 ply rubber.. All tires were specially designed and build by Bridgestone, out of 48 ply (!) aluminum impregnated rubber, and then filled to approx 500 lbs. of pressure. This gave them the ability to withstand tremendous heat and the enormous friction encountered during landing or takeoff. In fact, they have so much aluminum in them that they appear silver instead of black!

During the first flight of the #1 aircraft, something malfunctioned seriously in the main landing gears, and forced the craft to cut short its maiden flight and return to Edwards AFB straight away. What happened?

The main gears refused to fold up properly, only turning perpendicular instead of stowing safely.. When the pilots tried to raise the complicated landing gears to increase speeds, the main gears jammed and turned only 90 degrees inward and refused to fold up and stow away. Thankfully, when the lever was thrown back into the "wheels down" position, they returned to the correct position. Fearing any more malfunctions, the pilots landed quickly thereafter.

Following the malfunction of the landing gear on the first flight, the perils of the first flight were not over. What frightening thing happened after the first Valkyrie touched down on its first flight and almost caused the loss of the plane?

The left main landing gear caught fire.. During the rollout after a perfect landing, the brakes locked on the left main landing gear and caused the screeching tires to catch fire. Thankfully, there were several firetrucks at the ready and the fire was extinguished quickly. The flames were, for a minute or two, raging about 5 feet from over a hundred thousand pounds of fuel!

What were the names of the pilots to first fly the Valkyrie, on her maiden flight?

Al White and Joe Cotton. Al White was the commander of the flight, and stayed with the Valkyrie program throughout most of its lifespan. He made more flights in the XB-70 than anyone else (lucky guy!)

After almost every high-speed flight, ship one lost much of its _____ due to the flexibility of the aircraft.

Paint. The aircraft was highly flexible and twisted and flexed during flight, and even stretched a few inches due to the metal expanding under the intense air friction. Large portions of the white paint would flake and peel away.

What colors were the XB-70 Valkyrie prototypes?

White. Both Valkyries were painted high-gloss white.

The second Valkyrie differed from the first in a subtle design change. What was the change?

5 degrees of dihedral was added to the wings. The first Valkyrie demonstrated some sideslip instability, so some dihedral (upward cant on the wings) was added to the second prototype.

OK, here's a nice tough one. The XB-70 had the worlds largest moving surface on an aircraft and a unique ability to droop the outer portions of the wings, from 25 degrees to a severe 70 degrees. This was to take advantage of a newly discovered phenomenon. What was this effect called?

Compression Lift. The Valkyries were designed to take advantage of the enormous shockwave that was formed as the plane blasted through the air twice as fast as a rifle bullet. The wings could be lowered to channel and shape the shockwave, and allow the XB-70 to "ride" on this shockwave, greatly reducing drag and creating enormous lift.

The second Valkyrie prototype could be easily differentiated from the first to the astute eye. What two external visual markings were on ship two that allowed it to be told apart from ship one?

The fuselage under the nose was painted black and the tail numbers were 20207.. Ship two's tail number was 20207, while ship one was 20001. Also, the underside of the cockpit area was painted black, as ship two had a look-down terrain scanning radar, and ship one did not.

Ship one was lost in a crash, and ship two is currently in the Smithsonian.

False. Ship two was lost during a midair collision and was destroyed. Ship one finished her flight testing career and now rests forever in the USAF museum in Dayton, Ohio.

What were the names of the pilots that were killed during the horrible crash of the Valkyrie?

Joe Walker and Maj. Carl Cross.. The second Valkyrie was struck during a midair collision by an F-104 Starfighter piloted by Joe Walker. The F-104 exploded in flames and Walker was killed instantly. The Valkyrie soon entered an irrecoverable flat spin and was doomed. Al White was able to eject at the last moment, and though seriously injured, survived. Major Carl S. Cross, pinned in his seat an unable to move due to the crushing G forces, died with the airplane upon impact with the ground in the deserts noth of Barstow, CA.

The Valkyrie project was cancelled early in its testing phases by the narrow-minded and short-sighted then secretary of state Robert Macnamera. What was his nickname?

Mac the knife & Mack the knife. Macnamera was so nicknamed because of his famous, sweeping budget cuts that severely hampered the abilities and capabilities of the US military. In fact, during the creation of the F-4 Phantom II, one of the greatest all-purpose fighter-bombers of all time, Macnamera cut out the internal, integrate cannon from the plans to save money! His justification was, "They have missiles. Dogfighting is a thing of the past. There is no longer a need for a gun..." When this (obviously) proved disasterous against nimble Soviet Migs during the Vietnam war, the F-4's were retrofitted (At TREMENDOUS cost!!!!) to have a Vulcan cannon mounted beneath the chin.

What ridiculous assertion by Macnamera was his justification for cancelling the XB-70 project?

There is no longer the need for bombers. We have ICBM's.. Insanity. Macnamera proposed that Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles were the future of warfare and that bombers were a thing of the past. Right...

And finally, though the days of the Valkyrie are gone and she now rests, her "cousin" now prowls the skies. Much was learned from the XB-70, and after the terrible mistake in cancelling the plane was made painfully obvious, this craft flies on today. Made by the same company that built the Valkyrie, this plane has less than 1/3 the speed, 1/4 the performance, and costs almost 8 times as much per plane as the Valkyrie would have. What is this aircraft, which still shows some of the lines, some of the curves, of the Valkyrie?

B1-b Lancer.. The B1-b is the daughter of the Valkyrie. If you look at the Lancer from the side, you can still see the shadows of the Valkyrie in the forward fuselage and engine intakes.