x-Planes XB-70 Valkyrie and Others

[juddy]

Bit of non Land Rover Friday plane stuff, some very strange looking planes here, makes you wonder what they might be flying now.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/10/1136.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/10/1137.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/10/1138.jpg

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[Bigbjorn]

The Valkyrie and the Blackbird are in my opinion the peak of aviation development Their ceilings and maximum speeds pretty well exceed anything since. There is one Valkyrie left. They dropped and broke the other one. At Wright-Patterson in the Museum, near Dayton, Ohio.

I also was a fan of the B58 Convair Hustler supersonic bomber. At introduction into service it was faster than any fighter it might have met up with. Looked great too.

[drivesafe]

The Valkyrie and the Blackbird are in my opinion the peak of aviation development
I'll second that!


B58 Convair Hustler supersonic bomber

Can't place that one, got any pictures of it brian?

[blitz]

The black bird was and always will be one of the heights of human aviation achievement. Some of the voice transcripts are just amazing, listening to the pilot and navigator talking about a surface to air missile being fired at them and they just out accellerate it; awsome

[F4Phantom]

The black bird was and always will be one of the heights of human aviation achievement. Some of the voice transcripts are just amazing, listening to the pilot and navigator talking about a surface to air missile being fired at them and they just out accellerate it; awsome

wow I had no idea it could go faster than a missile

[blitz]

wow I had no idea it could go faster than a missile

The entire transcrip is a bit over 5 minutes and in that time they were crusing at about 60,000 feet over Iraq went up to about 78,000 from memory. accellerated to full noise, went over Tripoli where they were shot at again turned left and flew out over the mediterainean.

But it was the cool manner in which they spoke, it was obvious that this was not the first time either of them had been in that situation, not sure that it can out fly the missile but fast enough that it couldnt catch up before running out of fuel.

Unfortunately I dont believe I still have it, I will look for it and post it up if I can find it

[F4Phantom]

The entire transcrip is a bit over 5 minutes and in that time they were crusing at about 60,000 feet over Iraq went up to about 78,000 from memory. accellerated to full noise, went over Tripoli where they were shot at again turned left and flew out over the mediterainean.

But it was the cool manner in which they spoke, it was obvious that this was not the first time either of them had been in that situation, not sure that it can out fly the missile but fast enough that it couldnt catch up before running out of fuel.

Unfortunately I dont believe I still have it, I will look for it and post it up if I can find it

just had a quick search and could not find anything on the transcript so if you have it do share.

[Bigbjorn]

I'll second that!



Can't place that one, got any pictures of it brian?

Not in any form I can e-mail.

Edit. In the first post, the Valkyrie in the 6th. Valkyrie photo is being escorted by a Hustler.

[Bigbjorn]

I'll second that!



Can't place that one, got any pictures of it brian?

Google search "Convair B58 Hustler" for a myriad of sites, or go to Convair B58 Hustler (http://www.fighter-planes.com/info/b58.htm)

Briefly first flew 1956, in service 1960-70, top speed 2229 km/h, ceiling 18290 metres, never configured for conventional bombs only nuclear weapons. The weapons were carried in a detachable pod which could be configured in various arrangements of fuel and weapon. Four nuclear weapons could be carried on external pylons.

[Sleepy]

The Valkyrie and the Blackbird are in my opinion the peak of aviation development ....

I would also add the Concorde. (without retreads!)

[Pedro_The_Swift]

From Brian,,, ;)

"Quote--Google search "Convair B58 Hustler" for a myriad of sites, or go to Convair B58 Hustler (http://www.fighter-planes.com/info/b58.htm)

Briefly first flew 1956, in service 1960-70, top speed 2229 km/h, ceiling 18290 metres, never configured for conventional bombs only nuclear weapons. The weapons were carried in a detachable pod which could be configured in various arrangements of fuel and weapon. Four nuclear weapons could be carried on external pylons. end quote"



it appears the weapons were a bit longer lasting than the carrier---


From Wiki,,,

The B61 NUCLEAR BOMB, originally known (before 1968) as the TX-61, was designed in 1963. It was designed and built by the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. It began from a program for a lightweight, streamlined weapon launched in 1961. Production engineering began in 1965, with full production beginning in 1968 following a series of development problems.
Total production of all versions was approximately 3,155, of which approximately 1,925 remain in service as of 2002, and some 1,265 are considered to be operational.[citation needed] The warhead has changed little over the years, although early versions have been upgraded to improve the safety features.[citation needed]
Nine versions (or 'Mods') of the B61 have been produced. Each shares the same 'physics package,' with different yield options.
The newest variant is the B61 Mod 11, deployed in 1997, which is a ground-penetrating bunker buster.
The B61 gravity bomb should not be confused with the MGM-1 Matador (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MGM-1_Matador) cruise missile, which originally was developed under the bomber designation B-61.
When the B61 was still classified, aircrew were not allowed to use the term "B61". Instead, it was referred to as a "shape", "silver bullet", or even "external delivery".

[350RRC]

One of my favourite books on this topic is 'Skunkworks' by Ben Rich, who was an engineer at Lockheed. (Amazon have it).

Details the development of everything from the U2 to the B1 bomber, but the best stuff is about the SR 71 Blackbird.

The story I remember most is about the Blackbird based in Britain that flew through the Gibraltar Strait to do a normal recon flight over Libya.

On the way back both oil pressure lights came so they slowed down and decided to take a short cut across France. Almost instantly a Mirage came up right alongside and the pilot was talking on the radio and gesturing the yanks to land.

Instead they lit the afterburners and left the Mirage like it was standing still, then landed safely in Britain a few minutes later.

The Blackbird pilot asked his co-pilot what he said to the Mirage pilot on the radio............. answer was 'nothing, I just gave him the bird'.

cheers, DL

[Disco Mick]

Pretty cool

YouTube - Ride on a U2 spy plane

Cheers

Michael

[Sprint]

One of my favourite books on this topic is 'Skunkworks' by Ben Rich, who was an engineer at Lockheed. (Amazon have it).

Details the development of everything from the U2 to the B1 bomber, but the best stuff is about the SR 71 Blackbird.

The story I remember most is about the Blackbird based in Britain that flew through the Gibraltar Strait to do a normal recon flight over Libya.

On the way back both oil pressure lights came so they slowed down and decided to take a short cut across France. Almost instantly a Mirage came up right alongside and the pilot was talking on the radio and gesturing the yanks to land.

Instead they lit the afterburners and left the Mirage like it was standing still, then landed safely in Britain a few minutes later.

The Blackbird pilot asked his co-pilot what he said to the Mirage pilot on the radio............. answer was 'nothing, I just gave him the bird'.

cheers, DL

IIRC it was a recon flight over lebanon, they shut down an engine, cut across france untill they were intercepted by a Mirage demanding thier military overflight clearance number.... pilot restarted the 2nd turbine, flipped froggie the bird and left him wondering what happened....

my favourite SR71 tale is this one though:
The King of Speed (http://www.jumbojoke.com/the_king_of_speed.html)

http://www.pprune.org/military-aircrew/304067-sr-71-blackbird-tales-3.html#post3888441

[JDNSW]

........
my favourite SR71 tale is this one though:
The King of Speed (http://www.jumbojoke.com/the_king_of_speed.html)
.....

Very good - a bit like the U-2 pilot asking for clearance for a power off emergency landing after losing power - when he was a couple of hundred miles from the airfield; I seem to remember it was somewhere in Japan.

John

[Bigbjorn]

Very good - a bit like the U-2 pilot asking for clearance for a power off emergency landing after losing power - when he was a couple of hundred miles from the airfield; I seem to remember it was somewhere in Japan.

John

And the B52 pilot who requested priority in the landing queue because he had lost an engine. An F16 pilot butted in with "Ah, the dreaded seven engine approach'.

[HowardSmall]

Pretty cool

YouTube - Ride on a U2 spy plane (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PmYItnlY5M)

Cheers

Michael
Interesting that they have modified them since their original mission design which only allowed one crew member.

Howard

[Sprint]

Interesting that they have modified them since their original mission design which only allowed one crew member.

Howard

i think there were a couple of 2 seat trainers

[350RRC]

IIRC it was a recon flight over lebanon, they shut down an engine, cut across france untill they were intercepted by a Mirage demanding thier military overflight clearance number.... pilot restarted the 2nd turbine, flipped froggie the bird and left him wondering what happened....

my favourite SR71 tale is this one though:
The King of Speed (http://www.jumbojoke.com/the_king_of_speed.html)

SR-71 Blackbird Tales. - Page 3 - PPRuNe Forums (http://www.pprune.org/military-aircrew/304067-sr-71-blackbird-tales-3.html#post3888441)

Thanks, more than a decade since I read it (while skippering a yacht around the Whitsundays and AH drinking beer).

Main points are the same............ total US air supremacy, awesome machine, disdain for the french.

cheers, DL

[350RRC]

Anyone read 'Chickenhawk', about flying Hueys in Vietnam? Have read that more times than I'm prepared to admit.

[Sprint]

theres also a couple of books about loach drivers in vietnam too..... now THOSE guys are mad!

2 more good books to read are:
"F4 Phantom - A Pilots Story" - Robert Prest
"Warburtons War" - Tony Poole

[Hymie]

The engineering in the Blackbird was amazing. The new materials and techniques that had to be invented to work with them.
Even the tyres had to be a special compound to withstand the heat the thing generated.
An awesome brute force machine, it must have taken balls to fly it.

[p38arover]

Anyone read 'Chickenhawk', about flying Hueys in Vietnam? Have read that more times than I'm prepared to admit.

Great book. Depressing ending.

[INter674]

..agree re the Concord, a simply amazing feat of engineering and incredible to see up close, and one that the US can be thankful for (even though they did everything to stop it flying to protect Boeing), given all technology developed by the Brits (and Euro partners) was handed over to the US under post WW2 Government agreements - note the early developments of the X1 etc related to British super sonic experiments (was it Martin?).

Also many years ago when working for Telecom I was told that US spy flights crossed over Tasmania - well in so much as at that height they could virtually be crossing most of the Planet at any one time, and one local Telecom radio facility was involved with radio transmissions back to the US!!!

[lyonsy]

sr71 a mans plane leaks like a sponge on the ground but once warmd up in flight :twisted:
whould of been nice if the continued its development of its engine's and furtherd its ram jet ability.
the thing i like most about it was all the titanium in came from ussr as it was of much better grade then anything able to be sourced in good old usa and still is.
they could out run missile's more due to there height and speed by the time the missle reached there height it had ran out of fuel and could not catch it.

f15 is the best plane the us have made but the fact it can fly after losing a wing, still fly after pulling up out of a dive at exceeding 40g like to see any other plane do that, there's a saying with the f15 you dont ask how the skin got rippled you just fix it would be nice if aus got them with thrust vectoring its all ready a proven f22 killer and much more capable then f/a18 superhornet's

[Bigbjorn]

The threatened introduction of the B70 Valkyrie caused panic in the Soviet Union's defence forces. They had nothing that could defend against its speed and ceiling. The MiG-25 Foxbat was developed for one reason only, to shoot down the Valkyrie. After spending a staggering amount of money developing the 25 and rushing it into production, the joke was on the USSR as the USAF decided not to go ahead with the Valkyrie. It was the development of surface to air missiles such as the one that got the U2 that eventually caused the demise of the superfast bombers like the Hustler and Valkyrie.

The Foxbat used a specially developed and hyper-expensive fuel. The USSR sold some Foxbats to India. These spent a lot of time out of service as the Indian squadron found their budget was insufficient to buy the special fuel.

[Disco Mick]

There's an A-12 parked at the Space and Rocket center in Huntsville Alabama. This is the predecessor to the SR-71. The head office of the company I work for is based in Huntsville so I've dropped in to look at it a couple of times I've been over there.

You can actually see it in Google Maps:

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=space+and+rocket&sll=34.711804,-86.654296&sspn=0.001638,0.003484&ie=UTF8&radius=0.1&rq=1&ev=p&hq=space+and+rocket&hnear=&ll=34.711994,-86.654757&spn=0.001638,0.004506&t=k&z=19

[juddy]

I have this book and its a very good read ISBN 1-84176-694-1

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/10/1008.jpg

[Pedro_The_Swift]

There's an A-12 parked at the Space and Rocket center in Huntsville Alabama.

You can actually see it in Google Maps:



is that the black one at the top??

it must be HUGE!!!


I could spend a nice day looking around there:cool:

[Disco Mick]

is that the black one at the top??

it must be HUGE!!!


I could spend a nice day looking around there:cool:

Yep, I never realized quite how big they were in real life. I had trouble taking pics of it because I couldn't get back far enough to fit it all in. I'll try and find one to upload.

The Space and Rocket center is cool. They have one of the original Saturn 5 rockets lying on its side in a huge hangar. Pictures dont prepare you for how truly huge it is. They also have one of the Shuttles un display as well as a bunch of other interesting stuff.

Cheers

Michael

[Disco Mick]

This picture has a rather funny story behind it:

http://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/AB2.jpeg (http://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/15920)

It's the cockpit of a U2 at nearly 70,000ft up. The pair of silky ladies undergarments in the pic had already made several trips around the world before taking a journey to the edge of space. One of the guys in a cobra car club I'm part of thought it would be funny to post the underwear out to a random member somewhere and they would snap a picture of themselves with them, sign them and then post them on to another member. Some pretty funny pics appeared and the underwear went round and round the world. One of the guys is a USAF U2 Pilot and his pic topped all of us when he took them on a mission and snapped a pic of them in his office.

Here's the view from the office window.

http://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/AB3.jpeg (http://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/15921)

I believe the underwear may still be traveling.

Cheers

Michael