XB-70 STORY

zero-one for its first flight dawn breaks in today the president and executive vice president of the Los Angeles division of North American Aviation discuss flight plans without white their chief test pilot the man who will fly the plane Colonel Joe cotton US Air Force will copilot with him here the chief engineer on the b70 project there are many people working for the success of this flight today from mobile comm like test engineers conduct on-the-spot communications with the pilots at Edwards Air Force Base 30 miles northeast of Palmdale an air force monitoring facility stands ready a variety of cameras will provide a permanent record of the flight while skilled pilots in chase planes furnish immediate visual observations or this first flight al White and Joe cotton will take off from Palmdale follow a scheduled flight plan and land at Edwards Air Force Base they'll put the plane through basic maneuvers then if everything checks out push on up gradually toward supersonic speed total flight time will be about an hour and a half the primary purpose of the initial flights is to gather data on how the airplane flies how its new systems perform one at a time the six giant jet engines are run up to power their maximum power output is approximately 200,000 horsepower [Music] I understand okay number three now please in the remaining minutes before the plane taxis out for takeoff its check and recheck each of the aircraft systems and instruments must perform work [Music] the hilltop ain't right 108 left 500 all stations this network this is Edwards data control estimated takeoff I am for the V failure Zoe [Applause] so we'd like to have company time pressures 140 150 140 150 st. 1 will you give us the wind velocity and direction to please this is North American tower the winds are 0 9 0 at 8 knots that's my company the system by May 1 quantity switching 3.92 and utility to three levels empires hydraulics now disconnected Roger [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the xb-70 a represents a new concept in aircraft design not only in appearance but in its specifications as well speed 2,000 miles per hour altitude 70,000 feet and a range that will span continents several Air Force and North American officials arrive at the Edwards flight monitoring facility to watch the plane's progress on a closed-circuit television system [Music] Alice the state of control we have you on the TV monitor you look great [Music] although kilometer weights reports all okay as is Roger [Music] attention all stations this is mobile comm zero zero one now lined up on the end of the runway takeoff will be to the east I chase are you all ready one minute now thirty seconds now later on at 7:00 8:00 to 5:00 coming up on power in second [Music] three [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] about 220 now coming [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] when the gear handle was put down the landing gear returned to its normal extended position it was determined that a faulty electrical switch had caused the malfunction [Music] [Music] [Music] shut down number three engine I got an indication it's starting to go over 108 two percent that could have been an indicator but I couldn't take the chance loss of an engine in this airplane is no problem and the flight continues successfully with only five engines operating burn up cut open a fuel I think I'm gonna knock this off at the end of this one that do the low-speed and come in and start some findings right here I'm gonna put the minimum touchdown speed will be 175 at your present way down L 1 9 4 on the approach speed 1 8 4 on the Flair you're gonna make it go around hey I can see that shadow now it looks pretty good but big Welland you thr I'm going to do [Music] 45,000 and we're gonna land out of this one little higher you know if I don't know give you countdown for about 30 feet perfect beauty could she fishes out one not [Music] jettisoning garrison that said Endicott [Music] plus all your appetizers are born in her birth Bernie but not badly you've got three fire trucks with you [Music] a locked break caused the two rear tires of the left-hand main landing gear to blow up the pilot and co-pilot heard the tires blow out but were unaware of any damage and had no difficulty in bringing the plane to a perfect straight line stop a first-hand report on how the flight went was given to the press by Warren Swanson and L white of North American Brigadier General Irving L branch commander of Edwards Air Force Base Colonel Joe cotton the project pilot and Colonel Marion Akers program director of the b70 systems project office anytime we fly an aircraft out here it's a it's a big event this of course is one of the most important events we've ever had because it's the first of the truly triple sonic aircraft which will be a major part of the national inventory in the future this marks a milestone in our work here and I'd like to turn this over to a light the pilot to have him say a word or two and I'm very delighted with the way the thing went today I think mainly because after quite a long wait we're now on the way to developing this airplane and getting into this flight test program from which we have so much to gain we took off with an intent of flying around the base here until we were satisfied that the airplane was performing satisfactorily we got a good look at all the systems everything looked like they were ok and we we at that time attempted to bring the landing gear up I think maybe it circled the lake once about then then he made a normal gear retraction and it did not fully retract so it was decided not to fool around to take all the precautionary measures possible and just put the gear back down and leave it in that position then proceed to the alternate flight plan to obtain our test data that we wanted with gear and flaps down and with flaps up I shut one engine down because we had a malfunction in that one but had absolutely no trouble handling the airplane with one engine out came on down and did took a look at the approach made a load go around which was a plan and came on around for the landing and I think that that both Joe and I are very happy with the way the airplane control was controlled had no problem with the landing no problem with its visibility and a lot of the things that we've been thinking that we there were some question about and I'm just real tickled with the way the thing went other than the malfunctions were disappointed in that regard naturally the indications are that that the rear axle on the left bogie was locked when we touched down and didn't unlock at all and it blew the tire and ground the wheel down we had some malfunctions but boy that's why I got it this job is fine if we never had any malfunctions there wouldn't be any test pilots I'm delighted with the whole thing I just as I said earlier this is the big step of getting us on down the road we've flown now and we're going to keep on flying and we're not where we're not in the stage of waiting anymore two weeks after its initial flight the xb-70 a is airborne again changes were made on the landing gear brake system to prevent locking a faulty switch which prevented gear retraction was replaced and the number three engine overspeed condition was remedied okay let's have that they are on the counter number clear they Don continuous 337 oh I'm 33 and 10 seconds okay there we go here [Music] no beer is up and go away for well they're both named get on your coming flow and they're opposed but it looks okay I'm gonna make a left turn here and get back a little bit right here you're clear to the next point please here's your pitch bounce [Applause] Roger Joe total fuel under thousand pounds [Music] we're losing utility number one garage a gear down as soon as possible pressure is dropping in the utility hydraulic system due to a frat bros in a hydraulic line the xb-70 a has four independent hydraulic systems the landing gear operate from two utility systems if utility hydraulic pressure is lost as was indicated the landing gear is lowered by the remaining utility system as soon as possible this is a precautionary measure decision is made to land on the 11 mile-long lake bed runway which will allow ample length to stop without break it necessary Oh more valuable flight data was obtained during this flight and the speed and altitude were doubled the troubles encountered on the first flight had been overcome brakes nose wheel steering drag chute all performed perfectly [Music] just a week later the third flight was under way the goal supersonic speed 0:01 as you turn at the base of the tower by now the preflight check out continues without interruption has become almost routine for these men whose job it is to fly and test Air Force zero zero one [Music] [Music] various power instability tests are made as the plane climbs in speed and altitude all systems are performing well well we might be more efficient here if you'd like the a/b [Music] what's your now right here mach 1.1 at 35,000 100 feet at a press briefing held after the flight al white recounted one of the significant things about this flight was that we went supersonic in fact three different times the airplane goes through the sound barrier like all other present-day supersonic airplanes there isn't a trim change or anything to indicate that you've gone supersonic other than your flight instruments we flew roughly 20 minutes at supersonic speeds and systems wise the airplane performs just beautifully today this was the first time Joe cotton had an opportunity to fly the airplane from the copilot's viewpoint you see the major systems are also very important to get the aerodynamic information that we're after today the electrics hydraulics fuel system environmental not one squad the slightly mottled dalmatian appearance resulted from some loss of paint during this flight [Music] final approach speed 1 9 4 flare speed 1 8 4 touchdown one six eight one six eight zero zero one at which tower winds are presently indicating calm [Applause] see him happy ah the third flight in three weeks an exceptionally good record for a new airplane all test objectives were met there were no systems failures or malfunctions just one note of discord some additional paint was lost it was determined that in certain areas it had been applied too thick it became brittle and when the structure flexed some paint broke and peeled off the success of the flight is reflected in the faces of everyone like number four two primary goals fold the wing tips down reach a higher supersonic speed this time mock one point four [Music] landing gear and flaps were retracted immediately after takeoff and 0:01 climbed to 35,000 feet and a speed of 0.9 5-month the wingtips going to one half in supersonic flight as an airplane increases its speed a smaller wing is required at the same time a larger vertical tail surface is needed for improved directional stability on the xb-70 a this is achieved by its folding wingtips a first for the aviation industry as planned the tips were folded down 25 degrees succeeding flights at higher speeds will be made with tips down 65 degrees 1.4 first thing really wants to accelerate here data on I wingtips book enough it's all about engines good hydraulics with Mach 1.4 at 45,000 feet this fourth flight concludes the first phase of flight testing in reviewing the flight for the press copilot Joe cotton remarked the wingtip operation went office really slick as a whistle and she was really born to fly with the tips down in just 34 days for test flights have been conducted two of them at supersonic speeds in the words of al white now not only just going supersonic but we pushed on up there a good big step and we're looking toward it going ahead in equal size steps on up to Mach 3 it is these future tests which are expected to prove many of the new concepts of design and materials which have been incorporated into the xb-70 a [Music]