50 Years Ago: First Flight of the Valkyrie
The XB-70 Valkyrie was a high-altitude deep-penetration bomber capable of Mach 3 and a contender for Coolest-Looking Plane Ever. It was designed in the 1950s and first flew almost 50 years ago—Sept. 21, 1964 to be exact—at which point it had been rendered obsolete by ICBMs. For more information and specs, see the National Museum of the Air Force site. For pictures and video, scroll down…
A second Val first flew on July 17, 1965, and famously crashed a year later following a mid-air collision (video below):
Related Link: SR-71 Blackbird page