North American XB-70A Valkyrie - Book Review

Air & Space Power Journal, Winter, 2003 by John S. Chilstrom

vol. 34, Warbird Tech series, by Dennis R. Jenkins and Tony Landis. Specialty Press (http://www.specialtypress.com), 39966 Grand Avenue, North Branch, Minnesota 55056, 2002, 104 pages, $16.95 (softcover).

North American XB-70A Valkyrie, one of the latest entries in Specialty Press's Warbird Tech series, thoroughly covers an aircraft that will forever remain impressive. More than three decades after its final flight, visitors to the US Air Force Museum are still awed by the sleek craft's magnificent lines and its ability to fly at three times the speed of sound. Jenkins and Landis cover their subject from initial concepts, through program development, to several years of flight-testing. Additionally, this very well illustrated book devotes ample space to technical aspects of the XB-70's design.

The first portion pays considerable attention to the aircraft's conception and difficult development history throughout the 1950s. Jenkins and Landis cite the political, economic, and strategic reasons for the bomber program's demise and its ultimate incarnation as a high-speed experimental aircraft, emphasizing the then-prevalent view that intercontinental ballistic missiles would replace manned bombers. However, they scarcely mention the changes in tactical employment from high to low altitude, demanded by the advancement of surface-to-air missiles--that doomed the B-70 as a bomber.

Flying for the first time in September 1964, the XB-70 lasted fewer than five years and logged just over 250 total hours--mostly in testing and later researching the practicality of supersonic flight by large aircraft, including duty as a National Aeronautics and Space Administration test subject for an American supersonic transport. Surprisingly few pages (and no new photographs) in the book are devoted to the dramatic and tragic midair collision of 1966 that claimed the second of the two aircraft built. Furthermore, although this volume offers a wealth of photographs, drawings, and data, it scrimps on personal accounts.

North American XB-70A Valkyrie should prove popular with readers interested in X-planes, high-speed flight, or simply the evolution and experimentation that occurred during America's quest for the ultimate Cold War bomber. Oddly, publications about the XB-70 remain scarce despite the public's fascination with the aircraft. Jenkins and Landis fill a void in the literature with this comprehensive look at the Mach 3+ XB-70A Valkyrie.

Col John S. Chilstrom, USAF

New Orleans, Louisiana