The Valkyrie gets a bath

[WLJ]

They pushed the old, but still looking young, girl out of Hanger 4 and gave her a bath.
Filmed in 4k

North American XB-70 Valkyrie(Highlights May 2024)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jziNLg0CpG4

[230RN]

Funny to realize how huge it is, flight photos don't give much of a sense of scaling.  Too bad they only made 19,307 of them.

[Ben]

Funny to realize how huge it is, flight photos don't give much of a sense of scaling. 

That was the first thought I had. I had never heard of the XB-70, but what a cool aircraft.

[HankB]

Cool airplane, striking performance.

From the video, I see wrinkles in the skin - is that just from some kind of contact paper or vinyl they put on to make it look nice on display?

[WLJ]

Funny to realize how huge it is, flight photos don't give much of a sense of scaling. 

One of those was designed to cruise at Mach 3
Note: The B2 size comparison can be a bit misleading since the B2 is pretty much all wing

[BobR]

That was the first thought I had. I had never heard of the XB-70, but what a cool aircraft.

I can remember an article in a Boy's Life magazine I got talking about the aircraft and the crash. On another note, visiting that museum is worth a couple of days of your time if you are ever in the area.

bob

[230RN]

Cool airplane, striking performance.

From the video, I see wrinkles in the skin - is that just from some kind of contact paper or vinyl they put on to make it look nice on display?

Possibly the wrinkles shrink out at the high altitudes, low temps of its normal duty.  On the other hand, there's the heat of friction to keep the skin warm, so...?  Maybe they've got the two effects balanced out but in ground conditions, the wrinkles win out.

I haven't seen any pictures of the other 19,306* of them so I can't tell.

I've got wrinkles, too, but I'm a little older than that plane.


* ETA  I picked up the wrong tail number ( 19307) from a different aircraft in the video.  Would have been a good joke, but my error was pointed out in later posts.  <dummy me> :(

[230RN]

...

[WLJ]

I haven't seen any pictures of the other 19,306 of them so I can't tell.

Only 2 were built.
Unfortunately #2 crashed after an F-104 collided with it

https://www.thexhunters.com/xpeditions/xb-70a_accident.html

[230RN]

The tail number on the mothballed one in the video at 4:23 is 19307.

Yet looking at it again, most of the pictures show a different tail number (20001), so what gives?

[dogmush]

The XB-70 is cool, but I was actually more excited to see the Thundescreech sitting next to it. (At 2:51).  The Valkyrie is cool and fast, but the XF-84 is just peak 'Merica.

Thunderscreech explanation: https://youtu.be/nyG7Xxw2YXU?si=y3U_fvI6KiPaYpDw

[BobR]

The XB-70 is cool, but I was actually more excited to see the Thundescreech sitting next to it. (At 2:51).  The Valkyrie is cool and fast, but the XF-84 is just peak 'Merica.

Thunderscreech explanation: https://youtu.be/nyG7Xxw2YXU?si=y3U_fvI6KiPaYpDw

You also got a shot of the Tacit Blue 6:55 and that red and white X10 (unmanned demonstrator that first flew in 1953!) under the wing and on the ramp is just gorgeous. I need to get back there and visit, it has gotten so much better since I was there 40+ years ago.

bob

[Boomhauer]

The tail number on the mothballed one in the video at 4:23 is 19307.

Yet looking at it again, most of the pictures show a different tail number (20001), so what gives?

19307 is clearly a different aircraft. Look at the video again.

There were only two XB-70s. The bomber program was canceled with the introduction of SAMs that threatened high altitude bombers and the two airframes were used for research.

[HankB]

The XB-70 is cool, but I was actually more excited to see the Thundescreech sitting next to it. (At 2:51).  The Valkyrie is cool and fast, but the XF-84 is just peak 'Merica.

Thunderscreech explanation: https://youtu.be/nyG7Xxw2YXU?si=y3U_fvI6KiPaYpDw

I've thought from time to time that something like a Thunderscreech drone might have an application in some military situations as a psychological weapon against low tech "insurgent" forces that don't have the tech to shoot it down. Fly over, wake everybody up, and say "We know you're there." Don't make a big deal about it, in fact don't comment on it at all. The bad guys will just know something noisy is in the sky above them.

But it won't happen because after the bureaucrats got ahold of the idea, it would cost 100 billion dollars and they'd be open congressional hearings.

[230RN]

19307 is clearly a different aircraft. Look at the video again.

There were only two XB-70s. The bomber program was canceled with the introduction of SAMs that threatened high altitude bombers and the two airframes were used for research.

Ah, thanks.  Glanced up to capture that number while having dinner.

Terry

[MechAg94]

I once saw a B52 do a fly over of a football game.  Wingspan seems to stretch across the entire stadium.  Would be interesting to see this one fly.

[WLJ]

AV/1 Tail Number 20001
AV/2 Tail Number 20207

https://roadrunnersinternationale.com/xb70story.html

The 19307 tail number you saw https://youtu.be/jziNLg0CpG4?t=265 was on the X-10 https://youtu.be/jziNLg0CpG4?t=186

X-10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_X-10

[WLJ]

I need to get back there and visit, it has gotten so much better since I was there 40+ years ago.

bob

Pretty much go every year and it's grown massively in that time. Every time we're there we spot something new.

May also want to go visit The Naval Aviation Museum down in Pensacola FL. If you're lucky you may catch the Blue Angels practicing while there and the USS Alabama (South Dakota class battleship) is just a few minutes away.

Website https://navalaviationmuseum.org/home/