USAF XB-70 Valkyrie: Meet The Largest & Fastest Bomber the US Has Ever Built

XB-70A, which was built by the Los Angeles Los Angeles Division of North America (NAA) for the US Air Force, is a high-speed aircraft, delta-wing designed to fly at three-fold and higher than 70,000 feet (21,000 kilometers) .

On September 21, 1964, 5,000 employees and guests at the 42 air force factory in Palmdale, California, watched the Head of the Naa Alvin White pilot and Air Force Copilot Joseph Cotton took his first giant for the first flight. It was the highlight of the effort that began in 1954, when Boeing and NAA submitted a design for the competition for Air Force, and on December 23, 1957, NAA won the competition.

However, federal budget cuts and progress in the Soviet air defense resulted in an emphasis on cheaper intercontinental ballistic missiles and theoretically more survival as the mainstay of US nuclear forces. On April 10, 1961, the Air Force reduced B-70 to the research program, and only two aircraft to be built. Second Valkyrie, XB-70A-2, flew on July 17, 1965.

B-70 introduces various new technologies including designs that rely on aerodynamic theory called "compression lifts." At supersonic speed, the B-70 aircraft will create shock waves. The wedge inlet on the front of the Delta wing will create a disruption in the shock wave, causing it to slow down and build pressure under the wing, producing up to 40 pounds per square foot (1.9 kilopascal) from additional appointments in Mach 3. Increase the stability of direction and cruise efficiency , and to hold shock waves, one third of the wing can fold as much as 65 degrees.

To survive a neighborhood where sustainable aerodynamic warming creates aircraft skin temperatures ranging from 475 to 630 degrees Fahrenheit (246 to 332 degrees Celsius), NAA uses titanium for 9 percent of aircraft construction. To avoid using rare and expensive titanium, NAA appears with high strength skin that can defeat heat by developing honeycomb steel sandwich skin produced using brazing to join metal, rather than welding. This technique then becomes widely used throughout the aerospace industry.

With a maximum takeoff weight of 542,000 pounds (245,847 kilograms), XB-70 remains the largest and toughest airplane that has ever flown in Mach 3. Sturdy landing equipment, weighs more than 6 tons (5.4 tons) and consists of 2 tons (1.8 tons) wheels, tires and brakes support XB-70 on the ground. Every major tooth has four wheels and two nose wheels. In one stop, XB-70 absorbs the kinetic energy equivalent to which is used to stop 800 medium-sized cars from a speed of around 100 mph (61 kph).

On June 8, 1966, an accident during photo flights took the lives of two pilots and destroyed two planes - XB-70A-2 and F-104 which were captured by Valkyrie's Vortex wake up.

The Surting Valkyrie, XB-70A-1, continued to fly for NASA to test the supersonic transportation flight regime and then added to the collection at the Air Force National Museum A.S. In Dayton, Ohio, on February 4, 1969.

Source: Popular Facts

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