Remember This Jet?

Gather App
Guns.com Vault
Kanewpadle

Kanewpadle

US Veteran
Bronze Supporter
Silver Supporter
Joined
Nov 8, 2009
Messages
10,977
Reaction score
19,583
City & State/Province
Wrong side of Washington
North American B-70
imagesCAZYQ5A0.jpg


imagesCARSM905.jpg


My dad has an old black and white photo of this somewhere. I need to find it! :confused:
 
One got wiped out during a photo shoot of General Electric powered aircraft in formation. Opinions vary as to exactly what happened even though much of it is on film.
 
I WELL remember it! I seen it flying just before it crashed in 1966. I was flying a 1946 8A luscombe with no radio or starter. I was on my first cross country trip to qualify for my license. My route was from san fernando to quartz hill, landed and got my log book signed. Took off for helendale than on to phelan and back to san fernando. I had taken off from quartz hill (no longer a airport), headed east for helendale, at that time a old abanded army air force strip. I was green and got a lot of elevation. I seen the B-70 fly a huge circle around me with the lear?, on its tail. I lost it and tuned into my task. That day or the next morning I heard or read of the crash!
I know this sounds like BS, if challanged I will post a copy of that flight out of my 50 year old log book. I wish I had kept my eyes on those planes!
 
Last edited:
feralmerril said:
I WELL remember it! I seen it flying just before it crashed in 1966. I was flying a 1946 8A luscombe with no radio or starter. I was on my first cross country trip to qualify for my license. My route was from san fernando to quartz hill, landed and got my log book signed. Took off for helendale than on to phelan and back to san fernando. I had taken off from quartz hill (no longer a airport), headed east for helendale, at that time a old abanded army air force strip. I was green and got a lot of elevation. I seen the B-70 fly a huge circle around me with the lear?, on its tail. I lost it and tuned into my task. That day or the next morning I heard or read of the crash!
I know this sounds like BS, if challanged I will post a copy of that flight out of my 50 year old log book. I wish I had kept my eyes on those planes!
Click to expand...

Don't doubt your report. After all there were two of them up until one crashed. The other is in a museum.
 
It was a beautiful aircraft, built along the lines of the old SuperSonic Transport (SST). The SST was the project that just about shut Boeing down in 1968 or so.
 
Around 1967 lockheed had their version of the SST mockup in a hanger in burbank. I spent a lot of hours guarding that thing. Of course they didnt get the contract. I should look through my stuff and see if I can find a picture of it.
 
Awesome....

feralmerril said:
I WELL remember it! I seen it flying just before it crashed in 1966. I was flying a 1946 8A luscombe with no radio or starter. I was on my first cross country trip to qualify for my license. My route was from san fernando to quartz hill, landed and got my log book signed. Took off for helendale than on to phelan and back to san fernando. I had taken off from quartz hill (no longer a airport), headed east for helendale, at that time a old abanded army air force strip. I was green and got a lot of elevation. I seen the B-70 fly a huge circle around me with the lear?, on its tail. I lost it and tuned into my task. That day or the next morning I heard or read of the crash!
I know this sounds like BS, if challanged I will post a copy of that flight out of my 50 year old log book. I wish I had kept my eyes on those planes!
Click to expand...

Dang, I'd love to sip a few cool ones with you and listen to your experiences..............Someday.........Got my Wheeler Feral. Going Boo and moose hunting Sunday afternoon for a few days.............
 
Thanks, but really I always thought my life a little boreing. There was a lot of things I tried to do but was rejected by cause of high BP and overweight. I probley have flunked more physicals trying to get in the military or various LE jobs than I can remember.
I married late in life the first time so that left me a lot of oppurtunity to get in trouble the first half my life.
Truth is I got myself into a lot of situations out of stupidity and recklessness and Gods grace got me out of them, no thanks to me.
Good luck with that hunting. Its pointless for me to go as theresa wont eat anything that doesnt come from the butcher shop. Ex wife was that way too.
 
Last edited:
I remember the day of the crash (I was nine) and the sense of loss, then seeing the photos in LIFE magazine brought it all home. One of the chase pilots shadowing the XB-70 (Joe White, IIRC) apparently saw something odd, moved a little closer for a better look, and may have gotten caught up in the jetwash or the wake of the big sucker. His jet cartwheeled across the top rear of the Valkyrie, taking out both stabilizers, and both aircraft went down. What a sad waste of men and machines.
 
Moonman said:
We have one (I hope still) in the museum at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio.
Click to expand...

It's still there. The one at the Air Force Museum is the only XB-70 left in existence. One of my favorites, I alway try to see it when I visit the museum. I believe the GE engine used in the XB-70's sixpack ( six engines side by side ) were only used on that aircraft, but I may be mistaken on that.
I was lucky that I was able to see the last XB-70 making it's last flight. We were in class at the the Clark County Joint Vocational School in Springfield Ohio when it flew past with a fighter escort on it's wat to Wright Pat to be placed in the museum. This would have been between 1968 and 1970.
 
I was working for a defence contractor at the time......We got a lot of inside dope on the AC.....It drove the ruskies nuts and they cobbled the Mig 25 together in an attempt to counter the potential treat to their paranoid country.....The xb70 had little or no stealth in it's design and would have been a big target.......At high sonic and sonic speeds it had poor range....
 
When I saw the title of this thread, the XB-70 was the first aircraft that came to my mind.

I don't recall it at the time of it's development, but I've always enjoyed seeing it when I've visited the Wright-Patterson museum. BTW, for any of you military aircraft enthusiasts, if you haven't yet been to Wright-Pat museum...you really must go!

Tim
 
I think it got cancelled because it cost a fortune to build a supersonic bomber. Compared to the cost of a satellite guided (cruise or other) missile. A non-stealth supersonic bomber could be taken out with a relatively cheap missile. So, though it was groundbreaking, I think the technology just took development in a different direction.

Neat plane though.
 
I thought I would open this thread and see a picture of Joe Namath:D

I do like looking at jets from the Korean War era.
800px-North_American_F86-01.jpg


Nice thread and thanks for starting it, we should see some nice pictures from the experts.
 
Last edited:
Yep, and I remember a fictional story in IIRC "Boy's Life" called Flight of the Valkyrie about a test flight in which the aircraft commander had to put the wingtips in the down position and drag them in the dirt to help stop the aircraft. I seem to remember they ended up landing on a highway or something. Don't know if that could actually be done but hey, the story was fiction.

CW
 
unrealaircraft.com

The Soviets went nuts over the XB-70. Remember that "stealth" wasn't really viable at that time. Speed and altitude were key to survival. The SR-71 did have a lower profile but still was visible to standard radar.

I've seen the XB-70 at the Air and Space Museum at Wright-Patterson and was awed by it's size. You can walk underneath the A/C and can't touch the bottom of the fuselage.

If any of you visit Wright-Pat please stop by the memorial of the Heroes and give a thanks to those who gave all for their country. My uncle Jack Mathis is mentioned there. A Congressional MOH recipient from WW2(posthumous). We donated his medal to the museum. http://www.homeofheroes.com/wings/part2/05_mathis.html

Hobie
 
Last edited:
I had forgot all about the particular aircraft.
 
That video explaining the XB-70 crash was more generous to the F104 jockey than other versions.
 
Kanewpadle, I had never heard about the A-12. You probley are right. When I started lockheed in 1965 we had the YF-12 that was the forerunner to the SR-71. It looked the same but was scaled down to about 2/3ds size. I think I can tell this one now. About 1975 when I was a guard at lockheed. I was on a day off but called a close friend that was my counterpart at work. While I was talking to him he got a call from the tower along with the pilot of a SR-71 telling him to open the fly way gate. The pilot or rather probley the backseat radioman was saying they were over salt lake and lost a engine. We will be landing plant 42 in 14 minutes! Salt lake is 540 miles from plant 42 palmdale! I timed it. I ran out of my house and here it come right on time!
 
Satellite technology was nowhere close enough to be a factor when the B-70 and the SR-71 were initially built. And yes the SR-71 could be seen on radar. But it was a much smaller signature. The SR was the first stealth aircraft.

North American built some great planes. But their engineering and innovation wasn't as good as Lockheed at the time.
 
When I was a kid in the 70's, a relative visited the nearby USAF Museum at WPAFB and brought me a poster with this plane on it. It hung on my wall for a few years.

The XB-70 sat outside at the museum for a long time. After the museum added a new wing, there was a significant refurbishment effort that restored the aircraft to show quality, and it was moved inside. The last time I visited (which was at least 10 years ago) the XB-70 was next to an SR-71 and not far from an F-117A. Think about being able to simply pivot while standing and see all three of those!
 
boykinlp said:
I remember seeing pictures of my favorite airplane being a chase plane for the Valkyrie.

B-58one.jpg
Click to expand...

When you honestly think about it...before computers,CAD and all the gee whiz techno of today, we built some of the most fearsome aircraft in history.

As a certified Air Force brat I got to see up close and personal some of the most wonderful aircraft ever built in history. A memory that will never ever fade.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
For Sale Cooper on Handguns ... very old copy
Replies
3
Views
529
midewo
M
bullmack
Model 53 Jet rework stamp?
Replies
12
Views
746
22hipower
22hipower
A
Blessing or a Curse
2
Replies
32
Views
681
Mike SC Hunter
M
raljr1
A Gaggle Of Guns
Replies
25
Views
1K
raljr1
raljr1
Sebago Son
Baby Jake
Replies
6
Views
252
tinkerer
T

Latest posts

Back
Top