Valkyrie: The North American XB-70: The USA’s Ill-fated Supersonic Heavy Bomber

by Graham M. Simons

During the 1950s, at the time Elvis Presley was rocking the world with Hound Dog and the USA was aiming to become the world s only superpower, plans were being drawn at North American Aviation in Southern California for an incredible Mach-3 strategic bomber. The concept was born as a result of General Curtis LeMay s desire for a heavy bomber with the weapon load and range of the subsonic B-52 and a top speed in excess of the supersonic medium bomber, the B-58 Hustler. If LeMay s plans came to fruition there would be 250 Valkyries in the air; it would be the pinnacle of his quest for the ultimate strategic bomber operated by America s Strategic Air Command. The design was a leap into the future that pushed the envelope in terms of exotic materials, avionics and power plants. However, in April 1961, Defense Secretary McNamara stopped the production go-ahead for the B-70 on grounds of rapid cost escalation and the USSR s newfound ability of destroying aircraft at extremely high altitude by either missiles or the new Mig-25 fighter. Nevertheless, in 1963 plans for the production of three high-speed research aircraft were approved and construction proceeded. In September 1964 the first Valkyrie, now re-coded A/V-1 took to the air for the first time and in October went supersonic.This book is the most detailed description of the design, engineering and research that went into this astounding aircraft. It is full of unpublished details, photographs and firsthand accounts from those closely associated with the project. Although never put into full production, this giant six engined aircraft became famous for its breakthrough technology, and the spectacular images captured on a fatal air-to-air photo shoot when an observing Starfighter collided with Valkyrie A/V-2 which crashed into the Mojave Desert.The loss of the $750 million aircraft and two lives stopped future development, although there were several attempts to redesign it as an airliner to compete against the European Concorde."

Genres: History, Aviation, Military Fiction, Nonfiction, Science

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 19, 2011

Reviews

[Vivek KuRa · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting trivia I heard long time ago about the XB-70 Valkyrie project. Apparently, If the actual aircraft was made by pure gold (Empty weight was 253,600 lb!! ) , that value was the actual developmental cost of the XB-70 back then. Not sure if it is true or not.
Also, ever since I saw this last surviving Cold war Icon at Wright Patterson AFB museum in Ohio , I immediately fell in love with her complex aerodynamic shape, her sheer size and her interesting story. I knew about her high level developmental story and the mishap which lead to the mothballing of the project. But , I wanted to learn more about her back story and picked up this book.

Even though this book has way more technical information than I expected , it is not an easy read. It reads more like a textbook than an interesting non fiction book. Nevertheless, it is an important book to be read for every XB-70 or cold war era aviation enthusiasts.

[Philip Hollenback · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really interesting review of the history of the B-70 bomber project. There was an incredible level of detail, but the book was set up so you could just easily skim things like preflight checklists and parts diagrams.

Honestly, I don't know how you could even make a more complete book about this subject.

I also really appreciated the chapter comparing the B-70 with the SR-71 and how the two different manufacturers solved the various engineering problems of producing a mach 3+ plane.

[Captain Packrat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reads more like a textbook than anything. I was half expecting a test at the end. Lots of minutia, like listing specific alloys and part measurements. "There were actually three typess[sic] of titanium used. The first was Titanium 6Al-4V, which was heat-treated and used in thicknesses of 0.030 inches to 0.070 inches for the forward fuselage skin and 60-foot skin and stringers."

There's an entire chapter devoted to the pre-flight and landing checklists; if you've ever wanted to know how to fly a supersonic bomber, this book will provide adequate instruction. In the Kindle version, a lot of the photographs seemed to be scattered around at random, with many pictures having nothing whatsoever to do with the text. Lots of typos as well, as seen in the above example sentence.

Overall, it's an interesting look at the politics & development hurtles of one of the more impressive aircraft ever built, but the book really drags at the points where it delves into specifics.

[Steve Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Valkyrie

This is a fascinating story in great detail about an incredible aircraft. It is fantastic that such an aircraft could have been built sixty years ago. Apart from making iPhones, what have we been doing since?

[Kamas Kirian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a pretty good look at one of the truly unique aircraft ever produced. This book presented the XB-70 from initial conception through building and flight testing, to its final museum display. The book is loaded with tons of photos of not just the aircraft, but also the principle players as well as diagrams. It's not overly technical, but there are plenty of references for deeper dives if you're willing to spend the time for extra research.

The eBook was formatted OK. It appears to be just an OCR of the physical book, and the OCR software often couldn't distinguish between 1/l/I, or r/n/m, etc., leaving several misspellings. The photos appeared quite small on my eReader, though if using a computer they might have been more easily viewed.

[W.A. McDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before my time.

My only experience with this aircraft before reading this.book was a picture on a model box as a kid. This program was dead before I entered kindergarten. I enjoyed this book. Yes, it gets very technical, but since me and this aircraft are about the same age, I enjoyed that aspect. Simons does repeat himself at times and that would be my only complaint.
If you like aviation history, then I suggest this book.

[B Mart · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is likely the definitive literary work on the XB-70’s flying career. One would need to have an interest in the XB-70 or the early supersonic flight period to really enjoy this book. The book is fairly technical both in the manufacturing process and the flying process.

[Andy Thistle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good interesting technical insight throughout. Author hated Mcnamara

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book if you’re looking for just a lot of technical details and a narrative of the life of the 2 XB-70 aircraft produced. Otherwise fairly bland story.

[George Brownfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full of information but disorganized - not sure how to do it better but this wasn’t it

[Donald L Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but not particularly well written. Essentially a rehash of flight logs and reports There are better b70 books.

[Steve Sarrica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book that provides lots of details about the XB-70 Valkyrie. Only two of the Mach 3 replacements for the B-52 were built and one was lost in a mid-air collision. The Valkyrie is one of the most beautiful and complex aircraft ever flown. Simons does a good job of covering the scope and breadth of the program but, surprisingly given the size of the book, doesn't delve too deeply in many areas. There is little to no discussion of the design process that led to the final shape of the aircraft and little discussion of the "zip" fuels that were considered. Simons does give a great deal more info about the political climate at the time than I have seen in other texts. Over all, very well done.

[Mary Bates · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth reading. For the first time I'm beginning to understand why American innovation and risk taking changed in the hanged after the

1960's. Along with it America declined slowly internally, as well in the eyes of the rest of the world. A shame.

[david w.hart · Rating 5 out of 5]

B-70

I viewed this one of a kind aircraft several years ago and did not know much about it. Thanks to this book I have a good understanding of this aircraft.