Death of a Valkyrie: The 1966 XB-70 Midair Collision

airplane technology developed quickly in the 1950s partly due to the competition of the Cold War after Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the bell x-1 in 1947 plane simply became faster and faster in 1962 the Soviets introduced the tupolev tu-22 the world's first supersonic bomber aircraft the American answer was a plane that was both ahead of and behind the times the xb-70 valkyrie was an amazing piece of cutting-edge technology that was based on outdated strategic thinking and a tragic mid-air collision in 1966 with the prototype demonstrated the failings of an ambitious the troubled program it is history that deserves to be remembered in 1955 the US Air Force issued a general operational requirement for an aircraft that could effectively deployed the nuclear weapons of the day the requirement offered a challenge the aircraft would have to be large enough to carry the weapons which at the time weighed many tons from the continental United States to the Soviet Union and then be able to achieve supersonic speeds to escape the blast radius of the weapon building and fueling a supersonic plane that large would be pressing the envelope of the technology of the time the plane would need to have the range and payload of a b-52 but the speed of a b-58 hustler two paths were pursued simultaneously one tested the prospect of a nuclear fuelled aircraft the other would press the boundaries of capabilities from a conventional engine the plane would require a combat radius of 4,000 nautical miles with the payload capacity of 50,000 pounds it could have a subsonic cruising speed mach 0.9 but need to be able to achieve supersonic speed during the thousand mile entrance and exit to the target called the - original designs used fuel tanks that would drop off with depleted and wind sections that would be jettisoned to change the shape of the wing the designs were deemed too complicated but advances were being made in supersonic flight and new designs were on the horizon new research focused on a narrow delta wing there the research shipped out a surprising result at supersonic speeds such wings and more fuel but we're more fuel efficient that is while supersonic they burn fuel at twice the speed as wind subsonic but were four times as fast from a fuel to mile ratio the plan with subsonic cruising speed and the supersonic - made no sense the new designs would use supersonic speeds the entire route the advanced design ideas took advantage of new developments for example they suggested using boron enriched high-energy fuel for the afterburners the so-called zip fuel offered a great deal of extra energy extending range this will leverage the new idea discovered through Windtunnel experiments on re-entering the clear warheads called compression lift at supersonic speeds the nose of the plane would create compression waves the plague could gain additional lift by carefully designing the aircraft to ride these waves the concept is much the same as above the planes on its own wake while the concept itself is basic leveraging it on aircraft is highly complex the constant still tested the outer limits of technology at the time and offered significant issues among them cooling the significant heat caused by friction on leading edges at supersonic speeds but the new requirements call for a plane with a cruising speed of Mach 3 to 3.2 an over target altitude of 70,000 to 75,000 feet a range of up to 10,000 500 miles and a gross weight not to exceed 400 90,000 pounds North American Aviation won the contract with an advanced design designated the b70 the air force had a naming contest in 1958 and with an X added to denote the experimental prototype the north american xb-70 valkyrie was born the xb-70 is an amazing aircraft 196 feet long 31 feet high of the tail with a wingspan of 105 feet powered by six turbojet engines it is still to date the only potential production manned aircraft designed to effectively leverage compression lift and it was an outdated concept before the prototype was even built as impressive as it is and it is worth a visit to the museum of the united states air force in dayton ohio just to see it the xb-70 Valkyrie was based on concepts that were already as bummers developed the idea had been to make them play faster and higher to escape both enemy anti-aircraft artillery and fighter aircraft the xb-70 represents the high end of that philosophy but by the late 1950s anti-aircraft missiles were already demonstrating the weakness in that philosophy missiles could hit planes at any altitude at any speed in fact lower altitude ground hugging bombers offered better defense against anti-aircraft missiles than supersonic high-altitude bombers like the b70 and had far lower operating costs and as a delivery system for nuclear bombs the rapidly developing nuclear missiles were more effective fleets of supersonic high-altitude bombers were simply not worth the expense the b70 program was cancelled in 1959 the plane saw a brief reprieve in the presidential campaign of 1960 were both Democrat John Kennedy and Republican Richard Nixon were trying to portray each other as soft on defense but by 1961 Kennedy was convinced that the plane was an unnecessary expense in 1962 the massive spending that already got into the project would end up with a production of just two experimental aircraft that will be used to test various concepts of supersonic flight the first of the xb-70 prototypes made its maiden flight on September 21st 1964 as impressive as the aerodynamic design was the xb-70 was troubled in a number of ways the design was vast and complex and mechanical problems dogged every flight the planes operated by stick and rudder controls with complex supersonic airframe that in reality required digital computer assistance that had not yet been invented to fly the planes are flying Mach 3 but their operation was troubled the extent of the problems was demonstrated starkly in a test flight by the second of the two prototypes on April 30th 1966 shortly after takeoff from Edwards Air Force Base the planes landing gear retraction system shorted out as a result of this malfunction the nose gear was blown back into the partially retracted gear weld or slashing the tires the crew test pilots al white and Joe cotton tried to lower the gear to land but the hydraulic system failed the front landing gear was stuck and not locked into the problem was significant there is no way to belly-land a supersonic jet cotton and white would either have to get the landing gear to extend normally or the plane could not land white and cotton would have to bail out and the 750 million dollar prototype would be lost the crew first tried touch-and-go landings dangerous in such a large plane hoping to force the front gear into locked position it was a daring idea but it didn't work and looked like the plane was going to be lost but white and cotton had two more hours in the air to burn the fuel in the tanks and that allowed them time to work the problem they decided the best chance was to try to short-circuit the landing gear attraction-system but they didn't have the proper tools then cotton came up with a solution he dug in his briefcase and found a binder type paperclip he was able to short-circuit the breaker with the clip the gear locked down but cotton and white had to land with the nosewheel tires slashed and no hydraulic pressure on one of the four main break wheels on landing the gear exploded into flames but the fire crews at Edwards were able to extinguish them before significant damage was done to the plane the 750 million dollar prototype was saved by a two-cent paperclip the incident was not isolated cotton for example recall the flight when a 18 inch by 10 foot wide section of wing came off the aircraft at Mach 3 he said it was like you woke up with an elephant in bed with you that's how evident it was the issues would turn to tragedy on June 8th 1966 again the plane involved was the second prototype aircraft number 62 - 0 to 0-7 the same one that had had the problem with the landing gear al White was back in the cockpit this time with major Carl cross piling the xb-70 for the first time Joe cotton was there as well in the observer seat of a Northup t-38 Talon jet trainer trailing the flight the xb-70 is powered by six General Electric YJ 93 turbojet engines grouped in the single large duct under the aircraft part of the design that allowed the compression lift that day GE stockholders would be shown an observation flight photo opportunity where the VIPs we get to see the xb-70 flying in foreman with a number of other planes the day was described as having Kodachrome picturesque conditions with high scattered clouds over Southern California's Edwards Air Force Base the observers were negates Learjet the best option that would allow a good view and still be able to keep up the Valkyrie was to fly in formation with the Northrop t-38 a carrying Joe cotton McDonald f-4b phantom Lockheed f-104 a Starfighter and a north of IFA freedom fighter all planes with GE engines Kraus and Wyatt had done some calibration runs earlier in the xb-70 and the photo run was added to the agenda the f-104 was civilian registered and being flown by legendary test pilot Joseph a walker with the time held the world's records for flight altitude and speed Walker had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal was seven oak leaf clusters flying p-38 lightning during the Second World War after the war he became a research pilot with the Edwards flight research facility he flew the bell x-1 a version of which would become the first plane to break the sound barrier he was chief test pilot for the douglas x3 Stiletto and was one of only a dozen pilots to fly the record-breaking north american x-15 he frequently flew chase aircraft for NASA and so was highly skilled of the maneuvering used for the demonstration flight of the xb-70 although he reportedly questioned the purpose of the flight as it did not contribute to the research being done with the Valkyrie the xb-70 would be flying at 25,000 feet with the other aircraft in a wedge formation with two trailing off its wings on either side Walker and the f-104 was on the right side next to the wing it was not an easy position for a short most fighter but for high speed intercepts not slow speed photo opportunities he was in a difficult position trying to maintain a visually appealing distance from the f5 8 to his right the wing of the delta wing valkyrie was behind him he could not easily see it NASA later determined that it would have been difficult to assess his relative position simply by watching the valkyries fuselage to his left but the experienced pilot maintained the formation for Diddley 40 minutes while the GE marketing people and VIPs took pictures from the nearby Learjet then it came time to break formation as Walker went to separate he clipped the wing of the Valkyrie the xb-70 had been flying with its wingtips lowered configured for low-speed flight this novel he placed them in an odd position behind Walker but meant more air disruption behind the wing Walker likely never saw the wing before the collision and it is possible the airflow behind the wing sucked him towards the Valkyrie caught in the powerful vortices behind the Valkyries DeltaWing his plane was flipped upside down was flung sideways into the giant left stabilizer or the bomber shrink most of it off and cutting the f-104 into pieces that damaged the other stabilizer and the Valkyries left wing Joe Walker the veteran test pilot and decorated World War two hero was killed instantly the flaming wreckage of the f-104 trailed behind the giant Valkyrie inside the xb-70 cross and white didn't even know they've been hit the plane was so large that the collision didn't even register as they were trying to understand the sudden radio traffic the planes control started acting funny the first sign that the stabilizer had been sheared from the plane Air Force captain Peter hog piloting the t-38 with Joe cotton yelled into the radio midair midair without the stabilizers the belt we started to roll white tried to manage the roll by controlling the throttles the strategy had been successful on other aircraft but the six engines of the xb-70 are all next to each other on centerline one little leverage to control direction via the engines the roll and yaw quickly became unmanageable and the VIPs in the Learjet watched in horror as the plane started to spin like a frisbee hog yelled eject eject eject the force from the spin was ripping the plane to pieces and the wreck became surrounded in fuel vapor as the wing tanks ruptured somehow the fuel did not ignite possibly because the plane was using jp-8 fuel that day instead of its normal more flammable jp4 the xb-70 has special in fact revolutionary system for crew ejection designed to save the crew at supersonic speeds once activated the system throws the crew member backwards into a pod which closes around them to Jax it's an amazing system but the plane was not in level flight but spinning wildly subjecting the cockpit to all sorts of forces that confounded the system White granted quickly the system managed to perform but he was turned around so violently that his right arm was caught in the closing capsule he pulled himself free but the arm was shattered cross was not so lucky the g-forces of the spinning plane prevented the seat from moving back into the capsule he was pressed forward unable to escape before his capsule ejected white could see cross pressed forward but could do nothing to help bogged saying what shoot radio to shoot shoot shoot but the second shoot never appeared cross was still with the plane is it pancaked into the California desert and exploded into flames in his statement on the crash Johnson said Joe Walker and major Kraus gave their lives in the development of science and technology their deaths remind us of how dependent we are on men of exceptional ability in the development of new vehicles in flight in the resulting investigation several Air Force officers including Joe cotton were faulted for allowing the flight to occur was determined that the photo opportunity flight was only done under continued pressure from the advertising and marketing agency of General Electric the plane which costs the equivalent of five billion in 2019 dollars and the two veteran pilots were lost for a corporate brochure the plane that was lost aircraft number 6 - 0 to 0-7 was the more capable of the two prototypes but the first prototype kept flying and for another two years tested concepts of supersonic flight and the effects of sonic booms its last flight was on February 4th 1969 one was flown from Edwards Air Force Base in California to wright-patterson Air Force Base in Dayton Ohio where it was placed in the National Museum of the United States Air Force and you can still see it there today impressive monument to a bygone era and to the extraordinary men who risked their lives to push the envelope of flight technology I hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guy short snippets have forgotten history in between 10 and 15 minutes long and if you did enjoy please go ahead and click that thumbs up button if you have any questions or comments or suggestions for future episodes please write those in the comment section I will be happy to personally respond be sure to follow the history guide on facebook instagram twitter and check out our merchandise on teespring comm and if you'd like more episodes don't forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe [Music] you

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 786,026

Keywords: history, The History guy, history guy, aviation, US Air Force, XB-70, us history

Id: EDze-NIz3Qs

Length: 16min 0sec (960 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 06 2019