XB-70 Nuclear Bomber

[curlys8up]

Beautiful airplane! Hard to believe it was designed over 50 years ago. Come to the National Museum of the United States Air Force here in Dayton, Ohio to see the only one of these, along with so many other artifacts of aviation history!!!

[crookhunter]

@curlys8up Yeah, the museum is well worth the visit and it's free. I lived near by and my dad took us there often.  At that time, the Valkyrie was outside in the front. I still have my dads old slides. I ended up joining the USAF and did 22 years in aircraft maintenance. Never got stationed at Wright-Patt but still visit the museum when I visit.

[BonJohnvie]

Thunderbird 2.5

[conradflying]

no joke i saw the other one it in a hanger in Ohio

[superskidoos]

@conradflying it's at the Air Force Museum. Wright-Patterson AFB near Dayton. Admission is free. Awesome place. Check out their website. They have a B-2, YF-12 (SR-71) wwwdotnationalmuseumdotafdotmi­l

[scoobytopdog]

The XB-70 was developed in response to Air Force GOR .38 and WS-100A which called for a supersonic intercontinental nuclear armed bomber to replace the B52 by 1965. The B-58 was only a medium range bomber. The XB-70 was to fill the role of long range(intercontinental) bomber

[chadray]

@Dogapsa too bad that just like the SR71 this bad boy flew at mach 3+ and thus was almost impossible to catch with missiles

[YMJ101]

@chadray most SAM missles travle at mach 5

[MistaSt0kes]

You can see the surviving one at Wright Patterson AF Museum. It is definitely worth it if you are in the Dayton area.

[conradflying]

@MistaSt0kes i have seen it its really a sight 

[baraxor]

A Russian SAM shooting down Gary Powers's U-2 was what killed the B-70 program (as well as its cost)...the DoD had badly underestimated the Soviet Union's air defense capability, and belatedly recognized that for all its speed the Valkyrie couldn't outrun or outmanuever the latest missiles. So, B-52 pilots were trained to fly nap-of-the-earth to avoid radar, and the USAF dumped B-70 and began plans for the technically much less impressive but more survivable B-1

[TheMsdos25]

the XB-70 never carried bombs and was never designed to carry nuclear warheads

[scoobytopdog]

@TheMsdos25 The XB-70 was designed specifically to replace the B-52 in SAC service. It's primary role would have been to carry nuclear weapons.

[TheMsdos25]

@scoobytopdog the xb-70 was a b-58 replacement. not b-52 replacement

[titus99ify]

there's something I don't get: this plane was designed for mach 3. some other russian - better said soviet - planes (mig 31 for instance) were capable of more than 2.8 (mach). so why then the sr 71 blackbird was accredited with mach 3 also, yet it was looking so dramatic and it requested new technologies, new material to be used (titanium-made was a first back then) and so on? an obvious answer would be it was able to fly way faster than mach 3 ... but nobody said it did. so what's the truth?

[oStirFryo]

@titus99ify the truth is that the sr71 could go a lot faster than what is known to the public. i know people that have been inside of a sr71 and the airspeed indicator went to mach 24-27

[wcvbw]

@oStirFryo well it's quite obviously that it could easily go faster than mach3 but...24-27?!!!!!!!!!!!!! at that speed it could leave not only the earth atmosphere but its very own orbit!!!!!!!!!! my guess will be around mach 6-7

[oStirFryo]

@wcvbw my dad remembers a old space shuttle landing live video that they made the mistake of playing the comunications between the sr-71 chase pilot and the shuttle crew. he remembers the sr-71 pilot asking the shuttle crew sees him coming up on their side.. this was when the shuttle was in the upper astmosphere still hauling ass. the next day the same video was played without sound. My dad was a Airforce Flight Chief mechanic on F4 Phantoms, and was able to go inside a sr71 and see the airspeed

[wcvbw]

@oStirFryo that's fantastic. I remember I read somewhere that those cones mounted in front of the engine intakes were meant to reduce the air flow so the engines could properly work ... It was a secret plane but I wonder how come years after it was declassified its true capabilities are still a matter of secrecy. How about Aurora, anything on the subject?

[oStirFryo]

@wcvbw also the hydralic lines are coiled so when the plane heats due to high speeds the plane expands and the lines are straight, along with the airframe. but yea my dad was stationed in the philippines and got to go inside a sr71. he got to go up in his f4 phantom and the pilot got it to mach 2.6, had plenty of thrust left but was scared due to lighning bolts jumping on the wings. take what ever stat the military gives you regarding aircraft and multiply it 5-10 times and the is the true ans

[f123raptor]

@wcvbw You're close! The power plants were dual configuration jet engines. Their most notable visible feature was that their intake stage (cones) moved in flight to account for a broad range of operating parameters. At low air speed, a frontal compressor stage in each engine was required for operation (like all turbojets). At high speeds, the 'cones' attuned the flow of air to exploit air compression by virtue of a ram-air effect. This was done without pilot input.

[f123raptor]

@oStirFryo The SR-71 could not go 24 to 27 times the speed of sound.

[scoobytopdog]

@oStirFryo The airspeed indicator would have displaying knots, as in 2400 to 2700 knots, not mach

[digimaks]

What a rip-off from Soviet SU.....

[TheMsdos25]

@digimaks actually it was Russia ripping off North American with the Sukhoi T-4

[stubbostubbs]

Was this heap made from Lego?

[thetreblerebel]

gotta love the amount of black coming out of that exhaust!!

[1likestuff]

has this got sound? coz i cant seem to get it :(

[Tigadee00]

This is a beautiful aircraft.... Pity it crashed and was abandoned.

[TheMsdos25]

@Tigadee00 i agree. it was superior to the B-58 and the SR-71

[TheMsdos25]

@Tigadee00 it was abandoned because the air force preferred stealth over speed

[kimmer6]

I saw one at Edwards AFB in the early 60's. It was so graceful yet threatening just parked there. I somehow found the money to buy a plastic model and built it with some weights inside and "flew" it in our swimming pool. It would make it all the way to the deep end and sure beat the P-51 (with turning propeller) every time!

[Oldbmwr100rs]

Russian?Seen over Norway?What are you talking about? This is an American prototype bomber from the mid '60s.2 were made,one lost over Edwards AFB when it struck a F-104 observation plane.The only other right now is in a museum.

If We had built a group of these,they would have been unstoppable,as they had the speed and altitude likely better than the SR-71,only carrying nuclear weapons.Do a little research on the XB-70 Valkyrie,You'd be amazed with what was designed and built without computers.

[mussfrombruss]

Man that thing is amazing. Elegant - looks like a swan.

[crookhunter]

@skateslick58 Typical noob comment. facebook has to get rid of the Justin Bieber fans here  like this fool and the other drones who gave him a thumbs up. Please FB get a FB for Bieber and Gaga noobs only so they won't pollute REAL Facebook comments

[crookhunter]

@skateslick58  You're a disrespectful punk ass saying you shot that "bitch" down. It's not a bitch like you are. You are just another hippy wannabe pilot.. You are just the typical noob making threats you otherwise wouldn't in real life. Fucking punk

[JudgeMAGiC]

Ha!.. It looks like a concorde..

[hwoods01]

@JudgeMAGiC The XB-70's  were built before the concordes...

[stubbostubbs]

@hwoods01 Whats that got to do with anything?

[FLSanimation]

i have seen those planes many times in my contry (i live in norway)

and has been discovered by Norwegian f 16 fighters Many times.

and other types of aircraft from Russian military

[1975buddha]

@FLSanimation This is American? 

[FLSanimation]

@1975buddha russian. but if it was american. we dont care if american bobme rplanes flyes over norway.

[bryjb10]

@FLSanimation, this is not RUSSIAN.  ITS American!

[FLSanimation]

@1975buddha its russian but if that was american we dont care

[F14ace]

Damn, no audio? I bet that beast was loud with those six engines.

[MagnumX2000]

At brianrocks1: it was cancelled because it was not cost efficient. It was also not needed.

[TheMsdos25]

@MagnumX2000 and the air force liked stealth better than speed. and the B-2 bomber cost almost as much as the XB-70. the b-2 was $600,000,000 per unit!!!

[LauriSuperfly]

is it an animal...is it a bird?! NO its a XB-70

[BRIANROX1]

I don't see why they had to cancel development because of a crash...the F-22 prototype crashed and the Raptor went into production. Every prototype crashes eventually.

[t4e511]

@nikrok1 - Lajes Field Terceira Island , Azores , Portugal. The air strip is on North East corner of islan , been there for decades. Next time do some research.

[Nickmuzi]

TeeHee! A.I.D.S!

[t4e511]

My favorite aircraft as a kid. The base I lived on in the middle of the atlantic was a nice place to see strange aircraft. The last xb 70 was used as a drone , and destroyed in a missile test.

[ProfessorIgor]

@t4e511 what are you talking about ? they were NEVER flown as a drone. This was an intercontinental supersonic bomber... the last XB-70... the 2nd of 2 landed safely at Wright Patterson AFB, Dayton, OH where it remains to this day in the USAF Museum. The other one was destroyed when an F-104 collided with it during a photo shoot and it crashed.

[Nicodemus98]

@t4e511 I hate to break it to you, this plane never left U.S. air space. It was never stationed on a base in the middle of the Atlantic, Never flown as a drone, never shot down by a missile. There were only TWO ever built. These two continued as test platforms, until 1969. One crashed after a midair collision the remaining plane is in the Air Force Museum, in Dayton, Ohio.

[Evangelion271]

Nose of than plane , to me ... looks like some Alien head :D

[Strikerokk]

sweet plane)

[TheNightrunner666]

fuck slap a weapons platform on a SR-71 and it'll be a mean machine or the rumored russian Firefox...mach 6 plus super fighter...made a movie about that one

[lap116]

it would be a beast when it would reach op state

[tbienvv]

it has only 2 engines

[binaway]

@tbienvv This aircraft had 6 engines. You might be thinking of the SR-71

[brummy3]

The Russians built phony, gigantically large SAM missiles to parade around on May Day after they found out about this project. And they fooled the USA with those! That was part of why they didn't make this bomber - they thought the Russians already could shoot it down.

[MrCenationH]

wow man is that seryously a Nuclear bomber?? :O

[Kcon83]

This plane looks a twat

[EmperorOfMars]

The video has no sound because the the sleek design of this aircraft creates an acoustic bubble that allows no sound in or out.

[xraidedlok]

that f104 pilot must of got his ass beat.

[jwhyte67]

Must've been loud as fuck.

[Jesteria78]

What a waste of money.

[captinseperoth]

@Jesteria78

why you day that?

[NikitasGuitars]

@Dogapsa yeah the valkyrie wasnt designed with subtlety in mind lol..

[SMJeOma]

weird plane

[TheUncleDougger]

@100burnoutThe words fair and fight do no belong in the same sentence. The only fair fight is when you win.

[100burnout]

@TheUncleDougger you think sending few bombs on civilian is good?and destroying everything they had?you people think that we should fight because they did all the terrorist stuff on 911 .Well stop being like terrorist,people already have their mind like terrorist

[captinseperoth]

@100burnout

military are simply civilians that are given the "OK" to kill other civilians,who have yet recived the "OK". Stop being an idiot.

We firebomb bed the Japanese,yet no one cares that we napalmed Tokyo repeatedly.

imagine all nukes as big napalm weapons with radiation.

[vendetta81]

@captinseperoth so it's not ok for us to bomb a nation that is bent on wiping us off the face of the earth?

[captinseperoth]

@vendetta81 its ok to bomb anyone,as long as it's truly needed.

If we NEED to bomb Iran's atomic facility,because there are great chances of an atomic weapon being made,then do so!

[DarkWingTDR]

i like the plane but not the purpose of it damn the nukes ...only use is blowing ppl up and not only the enemie's but innocents 2

[buckstarchaser]

@DarkWingTDR That's war. Inocents will always die. The firebombing of Japan's cities killed far more than the nukes on them. So the question is HOW do you want to die? I would argue that getting nuked earns a person certain bragging rights in hell.

This plane was canceled because as technology improved it would not stay immune to enemies for long. And the B-52 was more useful and cheaper to maintain over all.

[NikitasGuitars]

@buckstarchaser No one seems to remember that fact. The firebombing in wwII brought japan to it's knees. The two atom bombs were just final nails in the coffin for a country with leadership that was so detached from reality that they wouldnt surrender when their subjects were literally burning alive on their palace doorstep.

[federalnutter]

looks like a thunderbirds creation. really cool

[sexking83]

lol at first i saw the jet i was like... oh crap this is tokyo drift all over again...

[TheGatman101]

i shit nuclear bombs

[m1leswilliams]

@TheGatman101 That'll be your mums cooking.

[bikersrule07]

XB70 was not a nuke missile plane it was a reserch plane for high speed's.

[xraidedlok]

@bikersrule07 no it wasnt.. shut up

[kinglu1000]

XB 70 IS A FAST SUCKER

[kirktalon]

The F-104 was made by Lockheed. Looks like there was a couple F-5s made by

Northrup. And there was a F-4 Phantom which was McDonnell. The B-70 was a North American creation. They were not all McDonnell as stated in the summary.

[raynus1]

The commonality was that they were all powered by General Electric engines.

[erickallen102]

Brock Samson flys one of those.

[flamesholder]

If I was filthy rich I would fund development of such plane.

[SS27topol]

looks like a protoype of a B-1B / TU-160

[pinfish2008]

Nice try it was an actual heavy bomber prototype. Two were made, one crashed and burned the other one is in a museum. No prototype.

[FelixA9]

Damn.  Have you ever SEEN a B-1 or Tu-160?

[mrjaffar]

This truely looks like something out of Gerry Andersons Thunderbirds!

[pissedoffpeter]

I saw this plane as a kid at Wright Patterson AFB. I had just built a plastic model of it so I was awed to see the actual plane 35 yrs ago when I was 10

[SEINORTACO]

the cafeteria there is named the xb-70 cafe with those bad ass frosted glass windows with the plane on em i would kill for one of those...... i too remember seeing the xb for the first time but that was when i was eight a little more than ten years ago and huge doesnt do the plane justice

[jamesthq]

wow that aircraft looks freaking creepy probably because you know what that was meant to do

[Dargakis]

so true.

the tu-160 scares me (in a way) for just the same reason :D

[StephenB58]

All the planes in that photoshoot that led to this crash, were all powered by General Electric engines. The XB-70 was so huge, it created a vortex turbulence that sucked in, whatever came too close. That F-104 got too close. A horrible waste of lives, just to take a few pictures.

[StephenB58]

For UCLAswimmer: I'd always thought that three of them were built. Did they ever fly all three planes? I know that two of them were flown in tests.

[MadMichigander1313]

No Stephen, they didn't. In 1964 the Valkyrie program was cancelled by then Secretary of Defence Robert MacNamara (The gentleman who gave us gems like the 'Edsel') on the basis that ICBMs were a far more cost efficient delivery system. Two flyable airframes were built, a third was being constructed, but was scrapped on termination of the program. The No. 2 aircraft was lost in a mid-air with an F-104 during a GE photo shoot Joseph Walker of X-15 fame was fling the F-104 and was killed.

[Rexpilot0990]

One problem. The F-104 is not a McDonnel aircraft. The Starfighter is a C+J Engineering design. Or just Lockheed Skunk Works.

Bonus points for knowing the C+J reference.

[Crawlerz246]

sweet craft! but doesnt it look kinda like Tupolev's Tu-144?

[RunitsBond]

Back in the late 60s - early 70s when Concorde was being built along with the Boeing B2707 and the Lockheed L-2000 the Tupolev TU-144 was originally built as a supersonic airliner, but the airline concept was scrubbed and turned into a military transport, while the B2707-200 almost bankrupted Boeing which ended the supersonic transport program in the US, the supersonic transport program (SST Program) was then canceled completely in 1971 do to money issues and the sonic boom effect.

[RunitsBond]

that was a reply to Crawlerz246 VVV

[gearhead937]

Come see the mighty XB-70 here in Dayton, OH at the U.S. Air Force Museum. It is a breathtaking aircraft.

[nighthawk650]

i have, and will again. i visited in 1983 when it was still relegated to the outdoors, i almost cried seeing it there for two reasons; 1, it was left in the elements, and 2, i couldn't fill it with fuel and take it for a ride, LOL i was so glad to see it finally made it indoors where it will be with us forever. such a magnificent beast! my 83 visit i stayed at a holiday inn and walked the train tracks to get to the museum, ahh the memories of my youth!!

[WHEREtheFUNK]

this bomber was so unstable...all three prototypes flat spun and crashed.

[ssjarchon]

uh... Only 2 were made and one is in a museum so...

[UCLAswimmer]

Sorry, 3 were produced. One crashed, one was used as a test-bed for electronics and other systems, the 3rd is in Dayton, OH. My father did design work on the tail - a single continous welding bead around the entire tail fin, titanium to titanium.

[archangel670]

it was far from unstable it had some technical kinks but so does any prototype only one crashed it was from a collision with an f-104 starfighter it got sucked into the wing tip vortices and flipped it over the valkyrie knocking the tips of the verticles and then crashed it into the port wing taking a chunk out of it it flew on for a moment or two before it heeled over and headed for the ground only two completed and the other flew for 7 years more or so compliments of nasa

[02DZ]

The Russians did build a very poor copy of the B-70. I think they built three prototypes. But scraped two of them, and put the other on display in some museum because they realized they didn't know what the hell they were doing.. The Russian copy never flew.

[monkeyman1140]

The XB-70 was also a technical failure. It had no hardpoints for weapons, and its fuel economy was terrible. We found out that altitude and speed was no guarantee against Russian ABMs, so we gave up the concept of supersonic attack bombers.

[StargliderX]

Incorrect. The prototype didn't have hardpoints, but the production version was intended to have four hardpoints capable of carying skybolt air-launched ballistic missiles. ABMs are for ICBMs only and cannot hit a maneuvering target such as a bomber. SAMs can in theory, but the real performance of Russian SAMs against the XB-70 would have been marginal at best. This is why the SR-71 has never been shot down despite numerous SAM launches against it. In short, MacNamara was an ignorant moron.

[4EPEHVULK]

LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THOSE INTAKES!!!

cud fit my car in there

[RacerX5034]

it could suck in a Buick

[frankvsmaximvs]

I don't know what it is...but I have been totally mesmerized by this aircraft for years.

[nighthawk650]

me too, frank, since i got into military aircraft back in the early 80's. it is a magnificent aircraft, and to think of the skies filled with them had they made it to production!!

[LordBorok]

i am glad it are not in service. it was ment to deliver a nuclear bomb. howe lame is that you can press a button and a hole city may be gone....

[acrazedmaniac]

hey...look what comes out of a big steel tube..way under the surface of the ocean!!!

with many indepedent warheads..capable of many 1,000s miles of travel..and accurate to meters...

[DinoinReno3]

I got to see on in the air when I was 13 or so. A real oh my GOD moment. It looked much better in the air than on the ground, and it looks good there.

[TerryBogardHimself]

No bomber comes close to the awesomeness of this beast of an aircraft. Not even the B-2 Spirit or the Tu-160.

[CoolasIce2]

@TerryBogardHimself Damn right. I wish it was put into production just so we'd have more footage of it flying, never mind if we really need it.

[45CaliberCure]

@TerryBogardHimself Like the Hustler's sexier sister. Love 'em both though.

[ww2footage]

@TerryBogardHimself what about T-4 Sotka ?

[dracel10]

@TerryBogardHimself The B-2 is the most awesome bomber in history

[coldwar2008]

they should have kept it

[Welloiledcog]

Looks like it should've come from the creative minds of the postwar Russians. ...And eventually, I think it did.

[italia10588]

hell no its awesome

[daflotsam]

This is one of the most beautiful and sophisticated aircraft ever built.

[Staatssicherheit]

Ugly plane O.o