XB-70 Valkyrie

[Seeker]

The Valkyrie was a 6 engined, Mach 3, cold war bomber prototype that was plagued with problems. One of the prototypes collided with its chase plane and crashed and eventually Pres Kennedy scrapped the plane. It was going to be in service as the B70 and would replace the B52 (which is still flying). At Mach 3 and 70,000 feet it was thought that no missile would catch it but Soviet missile technology advanced rapidly and it was no longer considered invulnerable.

60 years on, it still looks futuristic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poyTP6tK-3Q&feature=emb_logo

[chris8886]

That looks incredible.

[Luckypants]

Love stuff like this. American aircraft research in the 50's and 60's was incredible.

[SV650rules]

Love stuff like this. American aircraft research in the 50's and 60's was incredible.

So was British research on a fraction of the budget, yanks shamelessly used our ideas and then claimed ownership..

[Luckypants]

Oh agreed. TSR-2 was amazing and looked quite similar to the XB-70. But your point about budget is key, British designs were among the very best, but were never realised due to the costs. The Americans wanted to "beat the Ruskies" at all costs and therefore funding research planes was not much of a problem.

[SV650rules]

Canberra was a great aircraft, ( dates from late 1940's and some flew till 2000's, NASA still has 3 flying ) - USA built them under licence and used them widely, they had nothing to match the speed and altitude and used them as photo recon platforms. Hawker Hunter also a ground breaker - as many Brit aircraft were ( Harrier, Concorde etc ). We suffered ( and still do ) from governments that were not interested in technology and found it easier ( and politically expedient ) to buy American aircraft that were often inferior designs to our home grown ones. Manufacturing Industry is still a dirty word in UK, we prefer 'low carbon' (LOL) financial services to actually making stuff, no wonder so may of the best British brains went to USA ( the brain drain of 1950's onwards ).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Electric_Canberra