Developed to USAF General Operational Requirement 38 for an intercontinental bomber to replace the Boeing B-52, the Mach 3 North American XB-70A
was the subject of an order for three prototypes, awarded on 4 October 1961, although the third was later cancelled. A delta-winged canard design, with wing tips which folded down at 65° to the horizontal to provide improved supersonic
stability, and powered by six 13608kg thrust General Electric J93-GE-3 engines, the first prototype was flown by Alvin S. White and Colonel Joseph F. Cotton on 21 September 1964; it first achieved its design speed of Mach 3 on 14 October 1965. The improved second prototype flew on 17 July 1965, but was lost in a mid-air collision on 8 June 1966. The surviving aircraft carried out a number of test programmes, including work in connection with the US supersonic transport programme, but on 4 February 1969 it was flown to retirement at the US Air Force Museum, Wright Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio.
As a elementary school kid I watched the planes land at Wright Patterson. Awesome having planes land with parachutes. I have a picture of my self as a child standing next to the plane while it was still outside. I now work on the 787.
I worked in planning on the XB-70, one of the things that always amazed me on the mock-up at LA facility was a man could stand up in the air intakes. The fuselage & wings were made of 15-7 MO brazed honeycomb panels. When I later transferred to engineering, I took over drafting board that had layout drawing for a zero launch platform for the XB-70, didn't look real practical, but was very detailed.
I remember seeing it on the news and like I said, it sure looked like the other aircraft hit the XB-70. Why elso would it suddenly 'burst into flames?'
This aircraft was by far the most elegant looking, graceful and lethal weapon in the arsenal. I never understood why it was discontinued. As I remember it it was one of the chase planes that collided with the XB-70 causing the crash and not the other way around. The last one I ever saw was on display at an Edwards AFB air show. It was breath taking to see it and to be able to walk around it...
I was a young radio tech at Edwards on June 8, 1966. I had talked Russ Henderson into letting me go along with him to participate in the launch of an X-15. To a young nerd like me, It was a great treat to be a part of it, and I could hardly believe I was really there.
They used to park the XB-70's right outside my door of the huge M&M Hangar, right before they flew them, and those birds always took by breath away. They looked different from different angles, and were a stunning aircraft. That morning, I had failed to notice that it was no longer parked outside the hangar.
After we finished checking and certifying the communications on the Mothership, I was driving us back to the radio shop, the sun just coming up across the lakebed, when somebody pulled up beside me. It was a taxiing NASA F-104N, and the pilot was waving. Russ and I waved back, and he taxied ahead of us, then turned around and took off. It was Joe Walker, and he never came back. Nor did the XB-70.
Even for a place where crashes were frequent, this one hurt. A few days later, after midnight, I came upon several large stakebed trucks parked in a dark area outside the M&M Hanger. They were gone by morning. A day or so later, I was alone in the shop, when an E-3 in office attire (1505's), came in pushing a small cart covered with heavy sheets. It was a collection of charred, flattened, remains of cockpit instruments. I identified the ARC-66 control box of an F-104, and was told that it was from Joe's aircraft.
It was a long time before our other bird came out, but I stood out as close to the runway as I could get, and watched it take off weighting 535,000 pounds, thunder slowly into the sky with all six engines in afterburner, then come back around for a very low pass over us, while the technicians looked it over, checking for panels and leaks, then, it turned and left us, to soar at Mach Three, in a large arc of several Western states.
One day in mid 1966, I looked up and saw an XB-70 with a Blackbird on its right wingtip. The base historical office says they have no photographic record of it.
Watched from the Patterson flight line, the surviver land on it's final flight. The J93's put out a huge black smoke cloud but damn the aircraft was beautiful in flight!
After the XB-70 was retired, Col. Joe Cotton joined United Airlines as an engineering test pilot. In 1971 I found myself, a youngster, paired with him in B-747 transition training. During the long evenings, and after many hours in the cockpit, he shared stories of his career, getting shot down over Greece, receiving a direct presidential commission in the new U. S. Air Force from Harry Truman, testing and developing the B-58 Hustler, flying the B-52 mother ship for the X-15, and ultimately running the development program for the XB-70 with Alvin White. He talked of such things as 'unstarts'; losing a portion of the honeycomb wing at supersonic speed; and of saving the billion dollar aircraft when the nose gear became jammed against a door out of sequence: they fashioned a jumper wire from a flight plan clipboard, and Col. Cotton wiggled back into the electronics bay and shorted the brain box letting the nose gear free fall(!); then the story of the tragic mid-air collision that destroyed ship number two. In 37 years as an airline pilot, it remains the most fascinating time I can remember.
A beauty in it's own right... and a shame to have been abandoned. Another victim, much like the F-108 Rapier interceptor concept, of pressure on Adm. Curtis Leymay from bean-counters to choose either planes or missiles. The figuring: If we have missiles capable of getting there in just minutes... What do we need a HST-plane for?
Further irony is that it was intended as a replacement for the B-52, which at last report is said to see service until approximately 2050... Due to continuous updates of it's engines.
I have written 2 articles about the XB-70 for the leading aviation magazines in Greece, one in 1994 and one in 1998. It is, beyond doubt, the greatest aviation achievement so far, a combination of size, weight, thrust, speed, ceiling and range which is still a class of its own. The USAF Museum should place it ASAP in their impresive Cold War hangar and not hidden back in the ...Annex, where just a very few people are able to go every day. It's a shame!
Has to be one of the most beautiful aircraft ever designed or built. I worked for G.E. and was told that the crash occured when they were taking promotional photos of the plane. That's a shame it wasn't continued.
I worked on the catll tests of the F-4E We shared a hangar with the XB-70 One day I was invited to go down to the end of the runway and witness the take-off of the Valkyrie right over our heads. Unforgettable!!!!
Because of "on the cheap politics and economics" the structural bureaucrats in the senate, congress, and the D O D have set us up for the greatest fall of any superpower to historicaly yet to undergo. There was absolutely no reason why this type of supersonic bomber should have not been part of our triad attack respones S A C inventory. This plane could have been usefull in many ways. They just were too blind to see its practical attack posture! Our great nation is falling like Rome fell!
Terrific lessons learned at a time, the US could develop faster & better than we do today. The variable wings & structure was way ahead of its time. Too bad this sits in the past like our NASP.
