North American XB-70A Valkyrie (Warbird Tech Volume 34)
Kev Darling - North American XB-70A Valkyrie
Specialty Press | 2002 | ISBN: 1580070566 | English | 104 pages | PDF | 77.1 MB
Warbird Tech Series Volume 34
Specialty Press | 2002 | ISBN: 1580070566 | English | 104 pages | PDF | 77.1 MB
Warbird Tech Series Volume 34
Then one thinks of Mach 3 aircraft, what generally w w comes to mind is the Lockheed SR-71 or perhaps the MiG 25. But there was another Mach 3 design, one that was a good deal larger and five times heavier than the Blackbird or the Foxbat. Perhaps even more futuristic looking, the North American Aviation XB-70A Valkyrie was the culmination of General Curtis LeMay's quest for the ultimate strategic bomber. The beginning of the XB-70A story is intertwined with the development of a nuclear-powered bomber - something that could only have been imagined during the 1950s -and a new Mach 3+ interceptor, the F-108 Rapier. All three of these programs were intended to share systems and components, largely as a cost-cutting measure, and the funding nightmare soon unraveled as first the nuclear-powered bomber, then the F-108, were cancelled.