The North American XB70 Valkyrie is considered one of the most beautiful bombers ever built to fly faster than any other bomber plane, delivering American-style justice.
However, in today’s world, super-fast nuclear bombers aren’t needed anymore. So what if we turn this into a passenger plane?
A Proposal
In the 1960s, North American Aviation sat down with a proposal to turn their Mach 3 super bomber into a commercial passenger plane.
The report would outline three different designs – a rapid production prototype, an experimental civil model, and a military version.
Prototypes
The first prototype would be an engine test bed, while the second prototype of the XB-70 is far more interesting, as it is changed to carry passengers.
The resulting design would have a resemblance to the original Valkyrie apart from the cabin. It was 198 feet long with a 125 wingspan, carrying 100 to 150 people.
The plane flew at Mach 2 at a range of 4,000 miles. Although it’s a step down from the military version, they figured it would be much more fuel-efficient for the weight.
What Happened?
The XB-70 program led to the government shutting its doors on the commercial version. However, had the XB-70 continued at full speed, they would have built these commercial experiments.
They would only end up doing some of the experiments with the XB-70, namely the SST logistics with existing aircraft but we never saw our passenger version.