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LeMay’s Dream Bomber - North American Aviation’s XB-70 Valkyrie
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Posted by Donster on: 2009-12-31 16:28:44 517
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‘The XB-70 fulfilled General Curtis E. LeMay’s dream of a bomber that could penetrate the Soviet Union with impunity, carrying enough ordnance to decide the outcome of a war in a single strike’
By Walter J. Boyne @ HistoryNet.com
The magnificent 500,000-pound Valkyrie could cruise at Mach 3. It had monumental firepower, wingtips that folded down to enhance its exotic lines, and—best of all—a shape that did the impossible: obtain something for nothing from the air. North American Aviation’s XB-70 fulfilled General Curtis E. LeMay’s dream of a bomber that could penetrate the Soviet Union with impunity, carrying enough ordnance to decide the outcome of a war in a single strike. To the public, the Valkyrie represented the epitome of American aeronautical genius, and so it was. Yet the XB-70 took years to conceive, design and build. It was fatally compromised by a declining defense budget and the advent of improved surface-to-air and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
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