(CNN) — Five years before Concorde’s first flight, another majestic supersonic aircraft took to the skies — and almost became the inspiration for an even faster passenger plane. It was the XB-70 ...

The XB-70 Valkyrie was born from a simple Cold War idea: fly so high and fast that nothing could touch you. North American’s Mach 3 giant pushed materials, aerodynamics, and engines to their limits ...

During the Cold War era from the late 1940s to the early 1990s, the skies above Southern California’s Mojave Desert served as a testbed for the newest, biggest, fastest and deadliest military aircraft ...

The Cold War was a wild era in the development of military technology, especially in the field of aerospace. From nuclear-powered strategic bombers concepts to Manned Orbital Laboratories (MOL) that ...

A Total Failure: The XB-70 Valkyrie was an experimental U.S. nuclear bomber developed in the 1950s and 1960s as a potential replacement for the B-52. Designed to fly at Mach 3 speeds and altitudes of ...

Flying at 70,000 feet above the world at three times the speed of sound floats the future of combat - so much so that the US air force called it the last manned bomber. Its platform was so versatile ...