Quote:
Originally Posted by flipper35
Dad, the kids and I were trying to find a place to sit and eat at the local bike shop that was having an open house with some stunt riders. We had our food and there was a table with one guy sitting there and said we could sit with him. After some talk he mentioned he was retired but used to help build airplanes. When I asked which kind he said the biggest was a bomber in the 60s that they ended up not building. I said the XB-70 and his eyes lit up and he said no one knows what that airplane is. He was so excited to talk about some of the projects he was on at North American and Lockheed (he worked at both).
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Incredible aircraft... beautiful.
They built 2 of them. #2 was hit by another plane flying in formation and was destroyed.
#1 flew as a testbed for several years.
It's mission disappeared between the time it was initially designed and it was finally built. No longer a viable bomber. (SAMs got better, ICBMs could deliver nukes more reliably.)