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From: wolit@rabbit.UUCP (Jan Wolitzky)
Newsgroups: net.aviation
Subject: B-70
Message-ID: <3116@rabbit.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 5-Sep-84 13:12:50 EDT
Article-I.D.: rabbit.3116
Posted: Wed Sep  5 13:12:50 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 6-Sep-84 04:47:35 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 21

The North American B-70 "Valkyrie" was the second of the U.S.'s
four unsuccessful attempts at a supersonic bomber (the Convair B-58
"Hustler"; the General Dynamics FB-111, also known as the "TFX"; and
the original Rockwell B-1 "Budget Buster" being the other three).  
It had fold-down wingtips for pretty much the same reason that the TFX 
and the B-1 have swing wings, the B-36 had pusher props, and the new
Grumman X-29A is built backwards -- you gotta have a gimmick to win a
defense contract.  The program was scrapped after just two prototypes
were built, when one crashed, which was lucky for the crew of the
second and for those of us footing the bill.  Interestingly, it
appears that the crashes of the B-70 and B-1 prototypes occurred for
the same reason -- the planes went out of control trying to avoid
chase planes taking publicity photos.  (What this says about their
combat performance, I'll leave up to you!)  It might be noted, too,
that the same manufacturer was involved in both cases:  Rockwell and
North American merged some time ago.  A fairly detailed, though
incredibly biased (in favor) account of the plane came out 15 or
20 years ago -- I believe it was titled "B-70: Monarch of the Skies"
or some such hype.

	Jan Wolitzky, AT&T Bell Labs, Murray Hill, NJ