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North American XB-70 Valkyrie

Great Planes looks into the stories behind the most influential, innovative and intriguing machines that ever tookflight. The North American Aviation XB-70 Valkyrie was the prototype version of the proposed B-70 nuclear-armed deep penetration bomber for the United States Air Force’s Strategic Air Command. Designed in the late 1950s, the Valkyrie was a large six-engined aircraft able to fly Mach 3+ at an altitude of 70,000 ft (21,000 m), which would have allowed it to avoid interceptors, the only effective anti-bomber weapon at the time. Engineers had tried to build a supersonic bomber since World War II, and finally completed the XB-70 Valkyrie in 1964. See the story of this amazing plane on this episode of Wings.

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  1. Be nice to give the artist credit for the painting seen at the beginning of this, Douglas Castleman, American Society of Aviation Artists’ Artist Fellow. That’s me, by the way. At least not crop of the signature along the bottom.

  2. XB-70 and SR-71 are the greatest achievements in the history of aeronautical engineering.

  3. I think what everyone here is upset at is that American history documentaries tend to tell their side of the story. I too was disappointed they didn’t talk about the engine development, I don’t think they even mentioned the type and model #. The point is, every people get to write their own history With nationalism being what it is, everyone writes themselves as the heroes. Or, even if they lost, why they were right. Like in the case of Milosevic and Serbia. Believe it or not Brits. there are some Americans that do know that WWII wasn’t won by just one country. But you gotta admit. We Yanks had some epic moments in the war. But so did the British, Russians, Australians, New Zealanders, French, Chinese, Belgium, Dutch, Polish, Serbian, eventually even some Italians…. Everybody did their part. That’s why Hitler blew his brains out.

    Also this is an old video. But what a pretty bird. It’s sad that one of my all time favorite jet fighters took her out.

    Oh and Bluebird. If I give you Russia in Europe, then you gotta give me the United States in the Pacific.;’)

    • Take a look at what we gave the Brits. First nuclear submarine reactor for HMS Dreadnought.They couldn’t move their  soldiers without C-17
      Globemasters,C-130’s and Chinook helicopters,they  don’t have an aerial early
      warning system without American AWACS , they can’t destroy enemy tanks without
      Apache helicopters,they  don’t have a battlefield intelligence without US made
      UAV’s and last but not least,they don’t have a nuclear deterrence without
      Trident 2 and land attack capability without Tomahawks,the Eurofighter Typhoon
      is defenceless without AMRAAM’s..Who stole whose technology? 

  4. And i suppose you think that you yanks won WW2, when the reality is the Russians done the bulk of the heavy fighting. Even on D-Day British troops outnumbered the US in the fighting to get ashore. Oh and lets get real, if we didnt win the battle of Britian, you would not have even got involved, as you would have had nowhere from which to launch the assault on mainland europe.

    I have nothing against americans per se, but it infuriates me when you re-write history to suit your own inferiority complex

    • Brits are jealous again. .LOL..Hey limeys face it, you belong to the past, you have been blasted into oblivion after WW2,you lost your empire and everything with it.
      Today you are nothing more than a shitty little island with no viability in world affairs.
      invaded by millions of illegal immigrants .You are jealous and angry because you are decades behind in everything.You should compare yourself with France because the USA is way above your league.

    • inferiority complex against whom?? against you?? why should the worlds only superpower have any inferiority complex..Inferiority complex is a British sickness, living in the past,the empire is gone,the USA has more influence on Australia,Canada and New Zeeland,Hong Kong is gone.Your are the only country in G8 which is officially in recession. I could continue but why bother?

    • When was the last time you fucking coward limeys won a war without colonies and allies.? You evacuated  Dunkirk like a bunch of cowards leaving the defeated French covering your ass..Mass surrender in Singapore without a single shot..You faggots you would have starved without the US.
       

  5. the redcoats are coming

    …..i suppose u won the big one all by yourself…monty was a fag….so is charles for that matter ….hell of a space program u got there also……and…the comet was a disater…thank god for americans and the 707 u pathetic moron….and did I mention the wrights?

  6. Still censoring the truth, eh?

    Dirty american filth!

    Miles M.52

  7. No mention of Sir Frank Whittle, as the BRITISH inventor of the jet engine…. dirty american scum writing the superior British out of aviation history once again.

    No mention of the Bell X1, as flown faster than sound by Chunk Whatever, being a copy of a BRITISH aircraft, the Miles M52, that was stolen by americans post-WWII in a criminal ‘tech swap project’ that was a front to streal aerospace technology from impoverished British companies in the post-WWII era.

    Stopped watching right there… nothing to learn from american morons who cannot get even a basic history of the jet engine right.

    Eat sh*t and perish tasting your own blood, americ*nts!

    NEXT!

    • Sir Frank Whittle my ass..His jet engine technology was outdated before 1950..

    • Another fucking stupid Limey with  massive inferiority complex against America .Frank Whittle is not the sole inventor of the jet engine, Americans,French and last but not least Germans made the major contributions to its developments.Stealing British technology?Hell no stealing German technology?  Yes. You seem to forget who gave you the nuclear technology  and your first nuclear submarine reactor in 1960? (1958 UK-US defence agreement) you fucking stupid jealous limey faggots..You should learn the basic jet engine history to understand that Frank Whittle is not the sole inventor. Besides this XB-70 reached  Mach3 in 1965. Much of the Concords air intake technologies are copied fron this.What an aircraft ??way beyond the capabilities and engineering skills of limeys.

  8. I was stationed there at Edwards AFB, met Chuck Yeager, worked on experimental F-16s, and was bored out of my mind, stationed in the middle of nowhere.

  9. …except that this is a plane that was used not in the war of terror, but in the Cold War. Please learn to watch documentary before commenting!

  10. yet another example of american engineers(100s of ardent nazis) using reversed tech to commit attrocities worldwide in the name of the war on terror now ,and next it will be the ET threat ..the american public need to wake up and do something quick or soon find themselves under the care of camp fema ,all 600…..idk ,its hard to see why its needed .

  11. why did they call it Valkyrie did german scientists from WWII design it