underfire
Fully agree your comments about the looks of XB-70.
In the mid '60s I was on Aero Flight at Bedford when they were doing HP115, FD2 and T221 flying in support of Concorde design concepts. We also spent hours in an early Concorde sim at Bristol.
View on the approach was a big issue at that time and because of what we were up to in the UK when I went as an RAE Flt Lt to the SETP symposium around '66 I got well looked after by Lockheed and spent some time in their SST cockpit mockup. They also flew me to Edwards where Joe Cotton was kind enough to give me the XB-70 tour. What a jet. For me far and away the sexiest looking monster that ever sat on tyres.
As it happens the senior student on my ETPS course was one Lt Cdr Jerry Skyrud USN who was flying the F-4 on the port canard when the collision happened. His story of the accident day and flight plus the subsequent 'BOI' (all three versions) would fill a book.
As an aside when I was shown the XB-70 I was very impressed with the colours on a nearby X-15 nose cone - Just like a chisel when I had hardened it as an apprentice. As for the A-12 in the same hangar as the X-15 - what programmes they had in those days.
Regards
John