Re: Completely and totally OT: Politics

From: graywolf

> Glad to know you know more about what I am talking
about than I do.
> 
> However, that should have been the B-70 not B-1. As I
recall the B-70
> was originally designed for 8 turbojets, or 4 atomic
engines. I think
> the two actually flown had 6 turbojets. I believe a lot
of the
> technology developed for it was used in the Blackbird.
The idea with
> the nuclear engines was an aircraft that could remain
on station in
> the air for two weeks at a time, sort of like a flying
nuclear
> missile submarine. One of them showed up at an Air Base
where I was
> stationed once, but the security was such that you
could not get
> within a half mile of it unlike the B-1 I saw at an air
show where
> you could walk up and touch it.
> 

Early studies, what eventually became the B-70 program, had
a nuclear 
powered bomber component, but that had already proved
unfeasible, and 
been dropped, before the design program reached the point of
choosing 
engine configurations.

It was "back to the drawing board" several times,
and several years, 
after the "atomic powered bomber" was dropped
before the B-70 design 
began to emerge.

I'm not sure how much of the B-70 ended up in the SR-71
"Blackbird" 
since they were near contemporary products of competitors -
B-70 by 
North American Aviation and SR-71 by Lockheed.

> BTW, how many operational B-36's have you seen? I will
always
> remember six of them passing over my dad's Studebaker
at about 200
> feet when I was a kid. They were making a pass at an
air show. Dad
> was too cheap to buy a ticket so we were parked outside
the fence at
> Willow Run.

Maybe a dozen (or more) at different fly-overs.

And through the years B-50s, B-47s, B-52s, ... as well as
various 
fighters & other Air Force aircraft. The Air Force used
"show the flag" 
every Memorial Day back in the 50s and on into the early
60s.

The Army and Marines used to do Memorial Day fly-overs with
helicopters. 
Don't remember any Navy aircraft ... that may be because
there were Air 
Force, Army and Marine bases near where I lived as a child,
but not a 
nearby Naval Base.

Only got close enough to touch a B-36 once - it was on
static display 
during an open house - again back in the 50s.

I was crazy about anything having to do with airplanes when
I was a kid, 
and I *COULD* nag my dad into buying tickets.

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John Sessoms wrote:

> I'm not sure how much of the B-70 ended up in the SR-71
"Blackbird" 
> since they were near contemporary products of
competitors - B-70 by 
> North American Aviation and SR-71 by Lockheed.

Pretty much nothing was shared between the B-70 and the
SR-71(the 
designs are completely different), the SR-71 was an
outgrowth of the 
A-12 program, although the SR-71 designation does come from
the 
short-lived B-71 designation that the A-12 follow-on
acquired when it 
was proposed as a replacement for the already long-cancelled
B-70 (The 
B-70 was cancelled in '58, the A-12 didn't fly until '62 and
the SR-71 
program began around that time). Interestingly, the SR-71
tooling was 
destroyed at the direct orders of Robert MacNamara, quite
possibly due 
to the possibility of the F-12 program replacing the
troubled F-111 
program for a USAF interceptor (A role which was eventually
filled by 
the F-15, not the F-111 whihc proved unsuitable for almost
all of its 
designed roles).

-Adam

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