XB70 Video Footage

[WG774]

Hi,

Some Valkyrie footage (a couple in cockpit + flight + taxiing):

http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/gallery/movie/XB-70/index.html

Love to hear your comments!

:ok:

[John Farley]

774

While they are downloading, did you fly 774 as the Fred or the 221? or both?

JF

Thanks 774

Big is often impressive

Very big is even more so.

Happy days, Joe Cotton was kind enough to show me round the beast in Sept 66. It poured fuel on the ground from various places that he said shut up when it got going. Bit like the SR71. But in the background was an X-15 - the nose cone of which displayed all the colours on the first chisel I had heat treated some 15 years earlier. I just stood and stared. It was difficult as a Brit to keep ones end up in such company in those days. Best to just say nowt. I got my own back though at Edwards in 82 but that is another story.

[WG774]

Glad you enjoyed the footage.

Re: F.D.2 I'm nothing to do with the programme, just captivated by the incredible F.D.2 since childhood. Must think up another handle as several have enquired as to my involvement and one shouldn't give wrong impressions.

Do we get to hear about Edwards then? :)

Cheers!

[John Farley]

WG774

Don't worry about it! Fine monica.

The Edwards stuff will have to wait for a suitable excuse....

JF

Not the best ever pair of pics, but an interesting comparison of your two lives....

http://img47.photobucket.com/albums/v145/johnfarley/Fred_774.jpg

http://img47.photobucket.com/albums/v145/johnfarley/221.jpg

[treadigraph]

John,

Never mind Edwards (but do tell, please!), unless it's pre-empting stuff elsewhere, how about telling us about your introduction to Fred? A classic case of a great story which stands telling twice!

Cheers Treadders!

[WG774]

Does that machine look 50 years old to you? Words fail me on the beauty of the ogival profile.

I’m no expert, but I reckon echoes of the design can be seen on all manner of Lockheeds and MIGs, an influential aeroplane indeed. If you put FD2 into Google, the only sites that seem to offer anything remotely “technical” are in Russian.

Some more FD2 pics here:

http://www.studenten.net/customasp/axl/planes.asp?cat_id=7

And here (including a satisfied Peter Twiss):

http://www.testpilot.ru/uk/fairey/delta/2/fd2.htm

Cheers!

[BEagle]

Well, that brings back memories! 1132mph will always be a famous speed to me. The sort of exciting things which happened in the mid '50s! 'Droop snoot' came into the everday language of little lads in grey flannel shorts who thrilled to the reports of Peter Twiss belting up the Channel at low level and over 1000 mph!

Shame that it took the French to turn the design into a top notch fighter, the Mirage III. The UK threw the towel in thanks to the infamous 1957 Defence White Paper - and has never properly recovered.

I reckon that the FD 2 looked much neater than the BAC 221 - but both were classics in their wn right