Taken at Carswell AFB, Texas, in 1966, the cool photo in this post was taken during the Combination Open House, which had the honor of being the only public airshow in XB-70 Valkyrie history
The XB-70A was conceived in the 1950s as a high-altitude nuclear strike bomber capable of Mach 3 flight, making it virtually impossible for any enemy to intercept.
By the early 1960s, though, advances in Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAMs) posed a serious threat to high-speed, high-altitude bombers. At the same time, cheaper nuclear-armed Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) were entering service. In response, the costly B-70 program was canceled in 1961 before any Valkyries were completed or flown.
The USAF nevertheless acquired two XB-70As to study the aerodynamics, propulsion, and other characteristics of large supersonic aircraft. The first XB-70A, shown here, flew in September 1964 and reached Mach 3 in October 1965. The second Valkyrie made its first flight in July 1965, but it was destroyed in June 1966 after an accidental mid-air collision. The third Valkyrie was never completed.
The first XB-70A continued flying and collecting valuable test data for the research program until it was transferred to the U.S. Air Force Museum in 1969.
This photo was taken at Carswell Air Force Base, Texas, in 1966 during the Combination Open House, the only public airshow in XB-70 Valkyrie history.
Although the XB-70 appeared at several events at Edwards AFB, the Mach 3 bomber was open to the general public only at Carswell; at Edwards, access was limited to military personnel, according to XB-70 documents in the National Archives.
As this remarkable image shows, some of the most impressive aircraft ever built took part in the airshow held on March 24–26, 1966, alongside the Air Force Association’s 20th anniversary convention. A few of the aircraft captions, however, need correction: the unlabeled aircraft between the F-4 and F-102 is an F-106; the third aircraft from the right is also an F-106, not an F-102; the lower-left aircraft is a YF-12A, not an SR-71; the lower-right aircraft is a B-26K, not an A-37; the X-15 is a full-scale mockup; and the unlabeled rocket is a Thor Able.
North American’s XB-70 Valkyrie AV/2 was the star of one of the USAF’s biggest airshows in years, making its first public appearance and its first landing away from Edwards AFB. Piloted by North American’s Al White and USAF Lt. Col. Fitzhugh Fulton, the 275-ton aircraft flew from Edwards to Carswell in 55 minutes. More than 350,000 people saw it during the three-day static display. Carswell would be the only airfield AV/2 ever visited and returned from before it was lost in the accidental mid-air collision on June 8, 1966. On the display flight, the Valkyrie spent just 13 minutes at Mach 2.6 before descending to 6,000 feet over Carswell 59 minutes after takeoff. It then spent another half hour circling over Texas before landing. The return flight two days later was the only mission in the program in which performance data was not recorded, as Cotton, with White, flew back at subsonic speed in a little over three hours.
Here’s the same photo without aircraft labels.
Photo by U.S. Air Force
