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Jump inside the XB-70 Valkyrie, the largest and fastest bomber that the US ever built

Daniel Brown   

Jump inside the XB-70 Valkyrie, the largest and fastest bomber that the US ever built

XB-70 Valkyrie

NASA

The figure standing on the ramp provides a size comparison with the XB-70A aircraft in 1968. Six large nozzles for the General Electric engines are shown between and below the two large vertical tails.

It was the "largest and fastest bomber" that the US ever built, according to The National Interest.

The XB-70 Valkyrie could cruise at Mach 3, riding its own shock wave to do so, and could hit altitudes of 70,000 feet. 

But the XB-70 Valkyrie never went into full-scale production, and now there's only one left in the world, sitting on display at The National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.  

The XB-70 was developed in the 1950s to outrun enemy interceptors and air defenses, but ended up being doomed by the birth of surface-to-air missiles.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy scratched the XB-70 as an actual bomber program - but the aircraft continued to fly for research purposes until February 1969. 

Check it out below:

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