Valkyrie: North American's Mach 3 Superbomber

Rating:
Summary: The Last of the Big, Fast, High-Flyers
Review: An absolutely fascinating book that covers a lot more than just the B-70. The early 1950's were a time when anything could be done by the military. The B-70 Valkyrie was one project. It was a beautiful plane, the culmination of big, fast, high-flying manned bombers.

Unfortunately at that time there were simply too many such projects. The whole century series fighter program was under way, several missile projects, the Dyna-Soar project, and unfortunately by the end of the development program the Viet Nam War. At the same time, anti-air defense systems were increasing in capabilities -- witnes Gary Powers and the U-2 incident.

This book is truly splendid in its story of the times. While it is mostly on the B-70, it's table of contents reads, in part, as follows:

The Atomic Powered Airplane
The Mach 3 fighter - XF-103 and XF-108
High Energy Fuels

All of these projects were underway, not a single one made it into production.

Beautiful book, beautifully illustrated with hundreds of photographs, drawings and illustrations of the concepts of the atomic plane and the conceptual drawings that eventually led to the B-70.

Rating:
Summary: Masterpiece!
Review: As a long time fan of the North American XB-70A Valkyrie program, even playing a small part in presenting its history in a couple of writings, I am more than just a little impressed with this definitive presentation put forth by Dennis Jenkins and Tony Landis. They worked in concert to create what is truly a bonafide masterpiece.

Dennis is a prolific and thorough aviation history book designer and writer with many well received works; Tony is a dedicated artist, photographer and writer.

They both love the Great White Bird! And it really shows in this profusely illustrated work.

So with this latest, greatest history on the Valkyrie produced by them, there isn't any need for another book to be published on North American's Mach 3 Superbomber.

Highly recommended!

Steve Pace
Tacoma, WA

Rating:
Summary: WOW!!!!
Review: What a great book! I have purchased every book ever written about this airplane, and this is by far the best. Lots of new photographs, many in color, and printed on slick, glossy paper. The text covers many subjects that seem only slightly related to the B-70 (Mach 3 fighters and atomic-powered airplanes), but it all adds up to the complete story of how and why the B-70 was created, then cancelled. Great line drawings and many artist concepts. And did I mention the great photos? Highly recommended.