The incredible XB-70 Valkrie built by North American remains today a fascinating Cold War era performance machine made obsolete by Soviet advancing missile technology that meant no matter how fast or how high, they could reach. Back in 1964 the ambitious project delta/canard configuration machine powered by 6 Ethyl-boron fuel -fed GE YN93-GE-3 jets could reach 2000 mph at 82,000 ft- way beyond the reach of the Soviet Mach 2 interceptors of the time. Capabable of carrying nukes to anywhere in the USSR or a conventional 50,000 lb bombload. It was thought invunerable and was a beauty painted in anti-flash (nuclear) white paint. It was also a wave-rider designed to ride its own shock waves and this is what led to the 1966 crash of a F-104 chase plane. It had followed too close for a photo shoot and got caught in the XB-70 vortex from the delta wingtips, flying into the tail-fin and sending the XB-70 spiraling out of control to be destroyed on the Mojave desert floor. The program was re-examined and then cancelled. A shame for such an incredible machine, the sole prototype now rests at Wright Patterson's USAF Museum...

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/aircraft/research/xb70/xb70_02.jpg http://www2.interceptor.com/~thumper/xb2/xb70to.jpg http://www2.interceptor.com/~thumper/xb2/in-flight.jpg