The SR-71 gets all the love but the XB-70 Valkyrie went almost the same speed weighing 3 times as much

"71MGBGT Likes Subarus of Unusual Colors" (adamprotter)
09/14/2016 at 09:06 • Filed to: None

It’s like an SR-71 that could haul a school bus and that’s awesome. It’s the RS6 Avant of the aviation world.

DISCUSSION (24)

OPPOsaurus WRX > 71MGBGT Likes Subarus of Unusual Colors
09/14/2016 at 09:09

i’m pretty sure this isn’t what the songs about but I had to do it

ESSSIX GmbH - Accountant/Wagon Thumper > 71MGBGT Likes Subarus of Unusual Colors
09/14/2016 at 09:11

The RS6 Avant of the air you say...

Kinja'd!!!

KatzManDu > 71MGBGT Likes Subarus of Unusual Colors
09/14/2016 at 09:12

At least there is still one left at Wright-Patterson (USAF Museum.) It saw sunlight recently as it moved hangars.

Imagine updating it with more modern tech (GPS, fly-by-wire, HUD, glass cockpit, augmented reality/synthetic vision, etc. And more efficient engines.

spanfucker retire bitch > 71MGBGT Likes Subarus of Unusual Colors
09/14/2016 at 09:16

It also had a higher death count, despite never actually flying any war-time missions.

Pretty sure that’s why it’s never talked about.

71MGBGT Likes Subarus of Unusual Colors > spanfucker retire bitch
09/14/2016 at 09:21

You mean how 1 of the 2 aircraft had a mid air collision during a photo shoot when another aircraft knocked out a wing and it’s vertical stabilizers? That doesn’t really seem like the Valkyries fault.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > 71MGBGT Likes Subarus of Unusual Colors
09/14/2016 at 09:57

Well... not FAULT exactly, but the wingtip vortices sucked in Joe Walker’s F104. I can’t see pinning the blame on him either, he was a quite experienced test pilot iirc.

So basically it was so advanced it wasn’t understood entirely and as a result an unforeseen characteristic caused a tragedy.

spanfucker retire bitch > 71MGBGT Likes Subarus of Unusual Colors
09/14/2016 at 09:59

It was, due to the issue of the Valkyrie’s wake vortex which made the incident far worse than it would have been. It was a big issue for any planes that had to fly in formation with the Valkyrie.

The accident investigation also pointed to the wake vortex off the XB-70's right wingtip as the reason for the F-104's sudden roll over and into the bomber.

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > 71MGBGT Likes Subarus of Unusual Colors
09/14/2016 at 10:49

Number 3 all time favorite aircraft

1. FA-18

2. F-4 Phantom

3. XB-70

Future next gen S2000 owner > 71MGBGT Likes Subarus of Unusual Colors
09/14/2016 at 10:54

Top speed pretty much independent of weight. So..........

ttyymmnn > spanfucker retire bitch
09/14/2016 at 11:16

I think you’re being a bit harsh on the XB-70. Sure, it was a balls out crazy idea, but that crash would never have happened if GE didn’t feel the need to film an advertisement. But if you really want to get down to it, I suppose you could say that the XB-70 caused the deaths of twice as many pilots as the SR-71. Two pilots died when the Valkyrie crashed, and the USAF lost one pilot during SR-71 operations (which is actually a pretty amazing safety record).

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn
09/14/2016 at 11:45

What I was going to say. Of all the pointless reasons to have a wreck. Still, my understanding is that the XB-70 was not very successful.

Chris Clarke > spanfucker retire bitch
09/14/2016 at 11:48

That’s true, but probably not the reason for its fading glory.

The problem with the Valkyrie was newly developed Soviet surface-to-air missiles that relied on radar line-of-sight to find its target. This put the XB-70 at risk while performing its intended mission. The U.S. Air Force had to change its aerial strategy to flying low-level penetration missions to avoid the missiles. For this role, the X-70 offered little advantage over the B-52 it was slated to replace. And as the 1950's came to a close, manned bomber missions began to fall in popularity in favor of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). The plane’s high cost and limited range further decreased the Department of Defense’s desire to finance the program.

So the program was scrapped due to little need to great expense.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > 71MGBGT Likes Subarus of Unusual Colors
09/14/2016 at 11:50

It is awesome, but it never flew a single operational mission. That is what gives the SR-71 a higher measure of fame. The SR-71 flew hundreds of operational missions and broke pretty much every speed record while the XB-70 didn’t make the record books. Maybe it could have, maybe it wouldn’t have, but it was never given the chance to attempt any records. In the end the XB-70 ended up being almost literally a white elephant. An awesome white elephant, but a white elephant nonetheless.

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
09/14/2016 at 11:52

Had it not been for the development of SAM missiles, it would have been fine. It was designed to fly higher and faster than any interceptor of its day, and it did. But the SAMs relegated it to low level missions, and ICBMs pretty much made deep penetration nuclear bombers obsolete overnight.

Brian, The Life of > spanfucker retire bitch
09/14/2016 at 11:55

Bullocks. It was Joe Walker’s fault, full stop.

ttyymmnn > Brian, The Life of
09/14/2016 at 12:39

Yes, it was Walker’s loss of control that caused the crash, but it was GE’s hubris that put them all in that situation in the first place.

Brian, The Life of > ttyymmnn
09/14/2016 at 16:05

I can’t blame GE. Walker was making an unnecessary move by attempting an “inspection roll” over the tail section of the XB-70. This was a common move chase pilots did in T-38s during normal flight tests, not in an F-104 during a publicity photo shoot. GE just wanted the aircraft to be in formation; they didn’t ask for anything risky.

ttyymmnn > Brian, The Life of
09/14/2016 at 16:23

I was of the understanding that the roll was uncommanded, a result of the vortices trailing behind the Valkyrie. That's the first I've heard that it was an intentional maneuver.

Brian, The Life of > ttyymmnn
09/14/2016 at 16:31

It was absolutely intentional. I heard that first-hand from Fitz Fulton many years ago.

ttyymmnn > Brian, The Life of
09/14/2016 at 16:31

An interesting read, and one of the fullest accounts of that day I’ve seen.

http://area51specialprojects.com/xb70_crash.htm…

Brian, The Life of > ttyymmnn
09/14/2016 at 16:37

Understand that the “official” version of the story was necessary for, um, “optics.” Walker was given the hero’s treatment and the story was “enhanced” a bit for political reasons. They even named a school after him in Lancaster. To be clear, I don’t mean to denigrate the guy; he was a badass that made a simple mistake but you know how even the simplest mistake can have the direst of consequences. It was far more important in the context of the Cold War and the most expensive bomber program ever attempted to whitewash the facts a bit.

ttyymmnn > Brian, The Life of
09/14/2016 at 16:48

Well, I guess Fulton would know. Interesting. Thanks.

user314 > 71MGBGT Likes Subarus of Unusual Colors
09/14/2016 at 21:18

Some of the odder ideas to come out of NAA...

Kinja'd!!!

BayAreaMiataBoi > 71MGBGT Likes Subarus of Unusual Colors
09/14/2016 at 23:59

Awesome XB-70 oxcart. If it had appeared 10 years earlier, I don’t think that we would still be flying B-52s today.
But it did pave the way for the SR-71! (‘scuse me for a few minutes. . .)