B-70 Valkyrie

[rallymodeller]

The SR-71s were actually so dark blue as to be virtually black, and the blue only lasted a few days or weeks until the iron balls in the paint oxidized then it got a vague brownish twinge. The A-12s were mostly natural titanium with black leading edges and tails. The Blackbird at the AF Museum is black, believe me.

A side note about the probable service designation of the Valkyrie: when it was proposed by the Air Force to fill a strategic reconnaissance slot the new designation was to be "RS-70", for Reconnaissance Strike. The Blackbird was originally called the RS-71. The designation was screwed up by LBJ in the speech where he revealed the YF-12 as well.

If the RS-71 were to get to service, it probably would have gotten an overall black paint scheme or at least black leading edges and tails like the A-12. The white the Valkyrie carried was mainly for anti-flash, whereas the black served a dual purpose: the iron-ball paint served a stealth purpose and it dissipated the heat generated by high speed flight very rapidly. 

[rlee61]

The SR-71s were actually so dark blue as to be virtually black, and the blue only lasted a few days or weeks until the iron balls in the paint oxidized then it got a vague brownish twinge. The A-12s were mostly natural titanium with black leading edges and tails. The Blackbird at the AF Museum is black, believe me.

A side note about the probable service designation of the Valkyrie: when it was proposed by the Air Force to fill a strategic reconnaissance slot the new designation was to be "RS-70", for Reconnaissance Strike. The Blackbird was originally called the RS-71. The designation was screwed up by LBJ in the speech where he revealed the YF-12 as well.

If the RS-71 were to get to service, it probably would have gotten an overall black paint scheme or at least black leading edges and tails like the A-12. The white the Valkyrie carried was mainly for anti-flash, whereas the black served a dual purpose: the iron-ball paint served a stealth purpose and it dissipated the heat generated by high speed flight very rapidly. 

Well then, RS-70 it will be Now I need to get my hands on good set of decals. If anyone has some 72nd scale Blackbird decals they are willing to part with let me know!!

[PR19_Kit]

Even the XB-70's white paint suffered attachment problems, but that may not have been heat related.

There's some piccies in the Jenkins & Landis magnum opus on the Valkyrie that show Ship #1 looking decidedly worn with large areas of paint missing. This happened during the third flight, the first at supersonic speeds. Apparently they fixed the problem but it doesn't say how.

I'd attest to Daryl's comment on the silver tyres, I went to the USAF Museum at Dayton and seeing the XB-70 there fulfilled a lifetime's ambition. The tyres of all the gear are either painted silver, or have some pigment added to them. Even the treads have a silver sheen! Apparently it was to protect them against the heat.

Re the Contrail vacform, don't even THINK about it! It needs vast amounts of strengthening to make the panels stay straight and it too is a putty monster. I canned mine after many months work, but I have an unbuilt AMT one in The Loft. Perhaps I better stock up on even more putty before starting it........

[Daryl J.]

The tire was sitting in a fantastic hobby shop in Oklahoma City circa 1993 and that metallic looking material is through and through.   There was no hub so you could look into it's inside and the tire had been worn a fair bit.   Of all things I've wanted to own, that tire ranks near the top.


Daryl J.

[PR19_Kit]

   Of all things I've wanted to own, that tire ranks near the top.

That would be something else, owning one of the very few Mach 3 tyres in the world!

I dug through the book last night and it seems the tyres not only had the silver colour impregnated in the rubber but they were also painted as well! 

[MartG]

Mothership with a spaceplane or waverider piggybacking on top

Oddly enough, that's one thing I'm currently working on

[KJ_Lesnick]

The iron in the paint of the blackbird oxidized?  Was that due to just the air or due to the temperature of the air it plowed through at high speed?

KJ Lesnick
"Let's hope I don't get a heart-attack"

[frank2056]

As for XB70 whifs, unless you're a glutton for punishment and have a LOT of storage space, I'd advise against it.  The AMT kit is a fuzzy bunny to build, an ill fitting filler monster, and an even bigger fuzzy bunny to store.

There's the box scale Academy 1/300 XB-70 as well as the also box scale 1/180 Lindberg XB-70. The Academy one is small and pretty simple, but still builds up into a nice model, and it's cheap enough that you can wiff a squadron of them.

[Green Dragon]

I saw the Anigrand one done in SEA camo with a D-21 on it's back on a Japanese site about last years 1/144th scale show in Tokyo.
This it but it's on Dameya Yuunagi's blog, not the original place I saw it. Edit to remove non working link.
Should be able to access his pics through this Vulcan Valiant article on  Kampfgruppe 144.
RS70 pic is on page 6 of Dameya's blog after the Fugaku, Sukhoi T4 and XB-70 with XF-108.
Note the pic of the Vulcan seems to have a Blue Steel missile WITH A COCKPIT CANOPY!??!

Paul Harrison





***cleaned up link***

[philp]

I was right, Mav did 10 profiles which are currently in his Gallery.  Mainly British and USAF but the Canadian one looks good too.

[KJ_Lesnick]

PR19_Kit,

Even the XB-70's white paint suffered attachment problems, but that may not have been heat related.

That wasn't due to heating.  North American kept applying layer after layer of paint pretty much every time a General would pop on by to make the plane look nice and brand new, to impress them.  Unfortunately, as the plane flew under aerodynamic loads, it flexed a bit, and periodically the paint would crack and the airflow would blow it away.  It was first observed after the second flight, and by the fourth flight the plane was missing sizeable amounts of paint.  At first NAA engineers were puzzled but figured it out. 

After conducting a bunch of non-destructive tests after the fourth-flight to the best of my knowledge, they stripped off all the paint and applied a thin white coat of paint and the problem went away.


KJ Lesnick

[philp]

Here are a couple of Mav's that I like.

[jcf]

Production B-70s would probably have been covered with a silver-grey IR signature reduction coating system.

Valkyrie - North American's Mach 3 Superbomber by Jenkins and Landis discusses
the IR reduction efforts and coatings on pages 231-232 with a color 3-view on page
234 of a silver coated B-70 with underwing Skybolt missiles.

Jon

[PR19_Kit]

The only problem with pondering all these wonderful B-70 developments, in all colour schemes, is a) finding the models in the first place and b) installing the MONSTER shelves to display them!

I have an RW RB-47H, a GRB-36, a B-52H and the XB-70 in build (not all at once, just month by month) and I have no idea where I'm going to put them when they're done.

[marko dash]

here's the information from the alternate history TBO, where the B-70 entered service and variants became the backbone at SAC for over 30 years.
http://tbo.wikidot.com/north-american-b-70-valkyrie