Royal Marine Reacts To The World’s Fastest Bomber: The XB-70 Valkyrie 

To break it down for everyone in a different way; this plane flew faster than a 5.56 × 45 NATO out of an M16 rifle now wrap your heads around that one 🤯

X prefix is Experimental, Y prefix is prototype. Part of the 1962 US tri-service aircraft designation system.

You seem to be confused by the information that was communicated about the crash. The two pilots didn’t die during testing. They died because GE wanted a photo op taken of planes using their engines. During that photo op, an F-104 flew into the wake of the Valkyrie, losing control, and crashed into the XB-70 (not the other way around), exploding the F-104 and damaging the Valkyrie such that it crashed. It was an accident that had nothing to do with the XB-70’s capabilities nor was that incident a reflection of its ability to fly safely. As for the first prototype having issues, that was par for the course during development back then, which is why losing the more flushed-out prototype to a freak accident was so unfortunate.

I'm so happy you're reacting to more mustard videos! His channel is a literal gold mine

The worst part about it is that the 2nd XB-70 crash wasn’t even the fault of the plane or pilots themselves. It was one of the fighters who wasn’t paying attention and crashed into them.

Mustard is so good. I can't wait to see your reaction to his 747 airborne carrier, bristol brabazon, the rotodyne, the flying boats, etc. And his non aviation videos on other vehicles are excellent as well, like the SCMaglev, the antarctic cruiser, and other train videos

There's an XB-70 at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton Ohio. Shes absolutely massive!!!

I grew up with all three of these bombers flying over my childhood home in Fort Worth, Texas in the 1960s. We lived on a hill that overlooked Carswell AFB. It was a SAC base in those days. The XB-70 flew in for an open house and was the top plane to see.

You know the US had or maybe still has Cruisers that are nuclear powered. They basically looked like a US Navy destroyer, but instead of using gas turbine generators if they were nuclear powered, I don’t remember the ships names.

One of the challenges of that prototype were tolerances. Leaky components were much more prevalent back then and operating temperatures were so big that it exacerbated the problems of the landing gear and hydraulic system.

Technically the bomber didn’t kill the pilots. One of the trailing pilots lost control and collided with the XB-70.

I've known Mach 1 was the speed of sound since I was a little kid. but to be fair my dad took us to air shows all the time.

In the USA, we had an aircraft with a nuclear reactor on board called the NB-36H Though the reactor was never connected to the engines and the program was canceled in 1958.

You mentioned that the trouble at the start seemed small like brake lines, etc. I am NOT an engineer but I have to imagine going as FAST as this plane could go, that MANY things could "Rattle Loose". I may be WAAYYY off-base, but I would think that the speed and vibration alone was probably more than they imagined?

I've seen the one at the USAF Museum in Dayton Ohio, US. Incredible machine. The tires are silver due to the rubber being impregnated and strengthened with metallic composites. Same thing was used on the A12/SR71 program.

There was Nuclear bombers made as a experiments HTRE and PWAR, along with the support equipment to maintain it since it would kill any maintenance crew. The G.E. Beetle being a remote maintenance operator for a bomber that was never made. Project Pluto (should check that out) was a plan to develop nuclear-powered ramjet engines for use in cruise missiles. Would drop it's multiple nuke payload, also salt the earth with radioactivity as it few, also kill people on the ground possibly with its supersonic shock wave as it was planned to fly very low. Also it could fly for days, weeks or maybe even months? (I forget) so it could just spread radioactive contamination.

It was the pilot of the other plane that caused the accident. He started to do a roll over the xb and the wake sucked it in the tail

You deserve more subs than you have brother..for not only your valor and service, but on ur ability to adapt to civilian life (which may include PTSD) by doing RU-vid. You and other RU-vid Vets are real diamonds in the rough ❤

Nuclear powered missiles was a thing. Look at a video on them.

Now also remember the speed of sound at sea level at standard temperature and pressure is not the same speed at 50,000 feet

The plane had nearly 360,000 pounds of thrust and top speed of 5,060 kmph kilometers per hour

Don't know if somebody already put this but the reason the stealth bombers don't go past Mach One as they don't want to make a big boom. Also the xr71 blackbird with flu even faster had to have its entire skin made of titanium. If the friction caused by the air can turn aluminum to butter what do you think that would do to your standard issue automotive paint job. Also they didn't have fancy computer simulation the back then.

To be fair to the plane about that accident, I think he said it did get crashed INTO. One of the escorts literally hit it.

Well, unfortunately it's life span was REALLY short, so next best thing is the SR-71.. that is something to fear lol

You should check out a Video on the Avro Arrow great plane unfortunately the program was cancelled has alot in common with the Valkyrie also Mach 1 the speed of sound is a little over 767 MPH or about 1235 km/h so Mach 3 is about 3700 km/h

keep in mind the bombs that the XB-70 was designed to drop were Hydrogen bombs. you don't need to score a direct hit when dropping 20 megatons on someone.

The B-2 and B-21 fly at subsonic, because flying at supersonic speeds needs afterburners, with will light up on Infrared Sensors, plus the airframes will heat up more at higher speeds.

Two different electrical power grounds touching systems stop working or fires start.

The two pilots that died were one for each aircraft. The XB-70 was going to have a crew of four people in the operation Air Force but for test flights they only had one or two pilots at most.

It was being designed as a nuclear bomber, not conventional bombs. You don't need much nuclear bombs to make a mark on Russia. 👍🏻 All of those initial problems were just small problems because of new designs. They were fixed and they moved on.

The crash was not any fault of the plane or it's crew. One of the other jets in the shoot lost control probably due to the airflow from it and hit it, destroying critical control surfaces.

lol yes mach is the speed of sound lmao

B1-B still my fav

Reminds me of the Concord.

The B-52 is a mammoth of a bomber, you definitely should take a look at it.

The B-21 Raider and B-2 Spirit in no way compare to the capabilities of the XB-70. It could fly higher, faster, and carry more ordinance. 40,000lbs for the B2 vs 60,000lbs for the Valkyrie. The ONLY thing the B-2/B-21 had over the Valkyrie is it's stealth capability. I cannot overstate how MASSIVE this thing is. At the Dayton Airforce Museum they park other aircraft UNDER it, including a SR-71 and a YF-23, both decent sized aircraft themselves.

Not very stealth when you're supersonic, are ya?

The Air Force had a nuke powered plane found to be not really usable so canceled

Nuclear powered planes hasn't been done. There's a couple reasons why. First is that exact question, why? You would have an aircraft that can stay up longer than the crew aboard has means to stay airborne for. Why do you need something to stay in the air that long? If it can't be done with today's machines or satellites, then we've taken a wrong turn somewhere. Second is weight. The weight of a nuclear reactor compact enough and robust enough to go on an aircraft that could power it would be fairly hefty and require similar advanced systems to keep it operational. That means even though you've taken away the liquid fuel weight, you've replaced it with cooling water and uranium or plutonium (two of the more dense natural materials on the periodic table.) Third is that it's not practical. If a nuclear powered plane goes down, that's like dropping a dirty bomb or "salted nuke" and that'd be the premise if you intentionally crashed it. If it happened by accident, try explaining that to the world. Also you've got to remember that every aircraft that goes up has to have hours of maintenance poured into it to make sure it's good to go again. If your nuclear powered plane is making fewer landings, it either has to be way more robust or it's falling apart and would need to land frequently for long maintenance times anyways which kind of negates the advantage of nuclear power in that case. Quick tip, or rather memorization aid, for mach speed. Miles per hour it's about 767, so keep Boeing in mind. Kilometers per hour, it's about 1,234 (a bit closer to 1,235) kmph, so default a password on that. Boeing's default password for their 767's mach flight is 1234.

,75 Mach b21 yup

As for your? At 3:40 @originalhuman yea there is a bomber in our fleet that can use uranium for fuel and its the b2 bomber particular our nuclear mission variant it can use uranium to boost the takeoff

OK you figured out "Mach". Now, lets move on to "knots". Being a Marine, THAT you shoud know.

America tried nuclear planes back in the late 50s so yes they have been tried before

Being told after the 2nd crashed , you have to fly the model that already showed its trash . Been getting used to fix up #2 . 😂😂😂

Diversity hires 😂

kinda

I think you gotta remember what year this was the early 1960s they were still engineering with slide rulers, not computers. and the metal technologies and fluid technologies were in their infant stage of Aerospace

Mach speed is variable, depending on the density of the air at different altitudes.

There are flying working examples of Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion back at 1950's to 1960's called HTRE (Heat Transfer Reactor Experiment) and PWAR (Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Reactor). Obviously they didn't become standard issue, but their development does kickstart what will eventually become Generation IV Nuclear Fission Reactor called Molten Salt Reactor (MSR).

I'd love to see you react to alot more of The Fat electrician, i loved the vid you did on his 'proportional' story

No you're not stupid. You are indeed humble. You're great. I watch with my 11 yr old. We have the b lest time together with you.

Hey bro, I think you should return your SCP stuff. I watched the SCP overlord the hour it came out same with the 096. But I’m not saying you should stop the military reaction vids I LOVE THEM

The B52 has multiple ejection seats (six) and some eject down instead of up like traditional jets/planes do. An EWO and a gunner eject up and the radar nav and navigator ejected down.

my favorite plane , ever...the most amazing thing about this plane (so many things are) is that it was developed in the late 50s, but looks like something that was made in the early 70s...

We do have a supersonic bomber, the B1B Lancer, which if you look at both the SR71 and the XB70 were the predecessor to the afore mentioned bomber. The B2 Spirit and B21 Raider is ment to fly slower, but its radar cross section is much smaller.

I was at Wright Patterson when the XB 70 made its last landing

First

You have to remember, this was state of the art at the time. Technology that hadn't even been thought about till then. They had no idea what would be issues and had to learn as they went

Nowadays stealth is much more important than speed.

the experimental nature of this plane meant that there were always going to be unforeseen issues that would come up..."be prepared to go to Plan B..."....."sir?"(looking confused)...."when has Plan A "ever" worked?..." - Colonel Jack O'Neill (Stargate: SG-1) (seeing this plane in person is beyond worth it- walked around it for hours...)

As I recall, the training aircraft was owned and operated by North American Aviation. As it crossed from one side to the other of the XB-70, it collided with the vertical tail surfaces, breaking them off. The North American pilot was killed and the plane destroyed. The Valkyrie pilots went down with the fatally damaged aircraft. The B-58 was doomed from the word go. The cost per vehicle was unsustainable for such a small payload & range. The B-52 is expected to stay in service until the 2050's. That would be a century of service.

Believe it or not, there was a serious design for a nuclear powered plane. The US Air Force even flew a conventionally-powered plane with a scaled down nuclear reactor onboard. It was built by Convair, and designated NB-36H. The program was cancelled in 1958.

The B58 was the sexy little sister of the 52 that also never made it to stay. There are no currently US bombers with mach speed. They use stealth for their primary purpose. Beside that, it is mindblowing they want to get rit of the B1B who has the biggest load capacity in the fleet. Talk about a sexy plane. Know what it is made for. But woooov. Regards from Denmark . Love your channel. Alex

Please react to task force 145- “The Most Deadly US Task Forxe” By General Discharge it’s a combined US/UK task force made up of the best special forces unit our countries have to offer who operated in Iraq. Please 🙏

You never know if something is going to work unless you test it, and there is only so much testing you can do with the aircraft on the ground. 99% of testing will only be achieved when the aircraft is finally airborne and only then will everything be put through the major testing and stresses of everything on the aircraft that would be impossible to understand with the aircraft stationary on the ground hence the term "in flight testing". You have to fail in testing before you succeed to the point of having an experimental aircraft 100% fit and ready and safe enough to then say "ok an order for 100 of these please"...

Another great channel about planes and their stories is DARK WINGS. detailed yet concise few over 20min but well done with lots of footage of the time. Ww1 all the way to now. Check them out

The US number one fighter ace, Major Richard Bong was killed while testing the P80A on the same day we nuked Hiroshima, so being a test pilot is VERY dangerous...

Mach 3 supersonic transport ... Concord (Paris to NYC in 1.5hrs) ? (can't say for certain as I've not researched, but guessing that's where Concord came from idea wise)

The russians flew a prototype plane with a nuclear reactor on board. It never made it to the the point where it was driven by the reactor. The United States air force also was building a prototype plan and Oakridge National Labs had a prototype reactor in the works for the plane. It sparked a new generation of reactor that is just now being commercially viable. The MSR.

What you're not understanding is Jetson just barely been invented in 1950 and this was pushing the envelope of everything that anyone even knew. Only one or two tiny fighter jets could even break the sound barrier then and they were trying to design something massive that would go over three times that fast. It is called learning as you go... So much was still unknown.

Your comments about easy to fix or they should have tested are based on your modern perspective. It's easy to arm chair comment on how things should have been when looking into the past. Less clear when trying to crystal ball the future into the absolutely unknown.

FYI, the XB-70 prototype is now on display at the National Museum of the US Air Force, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, in Ohio.

I ment to say: you are not stupid, just ignorant about MACH pronunciation. Simply what we do not know, we do not know. Good luck with you broadcast. As you get better at doing it so will your broadcasts.

I wouldn't say you're stupid for not knowing what "mach" means... BUT does make you look a bit the silly sod. But in an endearing sort of way. 😀

You might not have known that aircraft carriers are nuclear-powered because Britain's aren't. Britain's two aircraft carriers are diesel-powered.

I mean... imagine if this thing we're manage to be made to these day. We might ended up having an air craft that coming from Ace Combat becomes real

Please watch NHRA Fire Breathing Monsters and do a reaction. You will get to see the US pro drag racing at its finest!

You’re not stupid bro. Mach speed is weird, it changes depending upon n altitude. It’s aeronautical nerd pilot stuff

For as much as you mention being a Royal Marine you probably should have known what Mach meant.

Super sonic transport . Ref Concord. yes we did have supersonic transports. So this did not have to fill that role.

Stealth platforms tend to be slower because the heat buildup at high speeds damages the radar absorbant material and reduces their stealth. These days we would rather be really small on radar rather than too fast to touch

It only has to carry one bro. And I’m sorry. Yes. As a Royal marine. You should have known what Mach is. lol.

Definitely need to react to the B52, a warplane that may very well serve for more than 100 years before being retired.

That crash wasn't the XB 70s fault is the traveling plane doing the photo shoot got caught in the jet wash of the wing

You should do some research on Chuck Yeager one of Americas greatest test pilots this man had nuts of steel!

We had several test pilots in Fort Worth, Texas that died during this time. The X planes were the planes that top pilots wanted to fly. The start of the movie The Right Stuff shows how many pilots viewed the X plane program. Set records that still stand today. Growing up we would have not one sonic boom, but 2 to 4 together as the chase planes following prototype planes or new planes off of the factory floors were tested before hand off to the USAF. We could also watch planes land on the runway that had been foamed down when landing gear or other problems happened.

The B-52 is still in use today by the U.S. obviously it’s been upgraded. Its sensors and type of weapons it can carry, plus there defensive abilities too. It’s crazy to think a bomber from the 1950’s still in use in 2024

U should do a video on the YF-23 grey ghost aka black widow or the F-14 tomcat (for the yf-23 grey/black widow ghost there is one video made by found and explained, whom made an extremely good video that explains it very well)

Mach is indeed the speed of sound. It isn’t a definite number though. Things like altitude, temperature, air pressure etc change it. It’s like 740 mph at sea level, but the higher you go, the speed in mph lowers. So at 50,000 feet, to go Mach 1 you only need to be going 660 mph

No Concord SST without the research and development gained here.

You have to understand its and x for experimental and never made it to production.

Not stupid for not knowing but ignorant. Till you learned now you are not.

There is a Valkyrie at the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum here in Ohio.

It sits in Ohio at the airforce museum, seen in a few times it’s amazing when you see it in person

In many ways, those problems weren't much different

Don’t feel stupid a lot people don’t know that Mach is a measurement of speed.

Mach is the speed of Sound. 1700mph. +

mach 1.0 is the speed of sound

Soviet also have similar XB-70 called Sukhoi T-4 Sotka

Droppin bombs at mock 3 is easy when they are on missiles and nuclear.