"Midair! Midair! Midair!"

[Valin]

XB 70

 

June 8th, 1966.

 

Major Carl Cross sits in the Valkyrie's cockpit for the first time, with Al White in the pilot's seat. For Carl Cross, getting into the B-70 program is the high point of his career. Worried about making the best impression and not making mistakes, he has studied hard and long. On this morning, before his first flight, he even asks Joe Cotton to meet him at the aircraft an hour before anyone else will get there, so they can sit in the cockpit and run through everything one last time before flight.

 

The flight plan for today is simple: they will make several passes over recording instruments at a speed of Mach 1.4 at 32,000 feet, then, at the request of General Electric, they will fly in formation with 4 other GE-powered aircraft so that GE photographers can take some publicity pictures from an accompanying Learjet. The boom-testing went smoothly, then, dropping subsonic speed and raising the wingtips back to 25 degrees, the Valkyrie joined up in formation with the other aircraft, including, just off her right wingtip, an F-104 Starfighter piloted by Joe Walker.

 

 

As the photo shoot progressed, the photographers asked several times for the formation to close up, until all five planes were in close proximity, and had been for over 45 minutes. Finally, at 9:26am, the photographers were done, and everyone prepared to break formation and return to Edwards.

 

Disaster struck at this moment as somehow, Walker's F-104 collided with the Valkyrie. The complex airflow surrounding the XB-70 lifted the F-104 over her back, spun the Starfighter around 180 degrees, causing it to smash down along the center of the Valkyrie's wing, tearing off both vertical stabilizers and damaging the left wingtip before falling away in flames. Already, Joe Walker, one of America's great test pilots, was dead.

 

(Snip)

 

[NCTexan]

I remember seeing the Valkyrie on the cover of Life Magazine.

 

It had received quite a bit of publicity prior to the accident.

 

Thanks for posting this @Valin