Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/08/13
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Sounds quite impractical to me. All the best! Raimo K Personal photography homepage at: http://www.uusikaupunki.fi/~raikorho ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lawrence Zeitlin" <lrzeitlin@optonline.net> To: <lug@leica-users.org> Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 5:52 PM Subject: [Leica] Re: B-70 axing > <snip> > The reason the B-70 was cancelled had much more to do with our > changing military strategy than with the aircraft's practicality. The > B-70 was designed in the 50s as an extension of the strategic bombing > role of the USAF. It was intended to deliver a high yield weapon > (read atomic bomb) to a target several thousand miles away, flying in > and out at three times the speed of sound. With a bit more > development, it probably could have done so. What killed the B-70 was > the rapid advance in missile technology, both ICBMs and ground to air > anti-aircraft weapons, combined with a Mutually Assured Destruction > (MAD) policy vs. the Soviet Union. To achieve a significant level of > destruction, it was far more efficient to target every major Russian > city with a nuclear warhead, either from a land launched ICBM, > carried in an airborne SAC bomber or from a Polaris missile bearing > submarine. They were already in place, the very expensive B-70 was not. > > A B-70 attack on vital targets in the Russian interior would have > required the airplane to fly for at least an hour over land. At > speed, the skin friction heat on the B-70 was so high that it was an > extremely efficient IR source, leading edges of wing surfaces almost > glowing a deep red. Further, it had a radar cross section the size of > Iowa. No stealth technology here. Simple IR guidance systems, such as > used in the Sidewinder missile, affixed to SAMs that could reach the > B-70s altitude, would have decimated a B-70 attacking fleet. I > designed much of the B-70 electronic countermeasures system and it > was a daunting task. After the Gary Powers U2 loss, we knew that > Russian missiles could reach the B-70s altitude. There was a "fix" > for IR radiation but it involved coating heat emitting surfaces on > the B-70 with gold to change the radiation spectrum. Try explaining > that to taxpayers in a guns AND butter economy. <snip> > > Larry Z > >