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From: jdm@gssc.UUCP (John D. Miller)
Newsgroups: rec.aviation,sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: SR71 to be retired October 1st.
Keywords: titanium, SST, Boeing, Concorde
Message-ID: <5855@gssc.UUCP>
Date: 14 Mar 89 19:01:48 GMT
References: <1659@trantor.harris-atd.com> <5527@cognos.UUCP>
Reply-To: jdm@gssc.UUCP (John D. Miller)
Organization: Graphic Software Systems, Beaverton Or
Lines: 24

In article <5527@cognos.UUCP> roberts@cognos.UUCP (Robert Stanley) writes:
>In article <1659@trantor.harris-atd.com> mjt@super.UUCP (Michael J. Tighe) writes:
>
>However, one of the reasons that Boeing put forward their SST proposal was
>surely because they had exactly the experience that was needed.  The XB-70
>(Valkyrie) was the pioneer in this respect, and didn't it make extensive
>use of epoxy-bonded, honey-comb titanium sandwich?

North American built the XB-70s, not Boeing.  That bird gets MY vote
for most beautiful airplane ever.  It was made of honeycomb
stainless-steel (!) which was a new and complicated process, to be
sure.  From the WINGS special on the Discovery Channel (I am tapeing
all of the "Great Planes" series), when you divide the development cost
over the number of flights the two Valkyries made, it comes to about
$11 million per flight.  In 1964 dollars.  It was the biggest plane
built, at the time.  The huge delta wing is still the largest control
surface ever put on a plane.

-- jdm
-- 
...!{tektronix!verdix}!sequent!gssc!jdm                John David Miller
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