North American XB-70 Valkyrie in Pictures: America's Cold War Mach 3 Nuclear Bomber

Flying at 70,000 feet, carrying nuclear weapons at Mach 3+ for thousands of miles, the North American Aviation XB-70 Valkyrie was not merely going to redefine military aviation, but the very nature of warfare itself. The XB-70 flew so fast and so high it would only appear on radar screens for a fleeting moment, making it impossible for enemy controllers to direct their interceptors to the target before it flew out of range.

When it was first designed in the 1950s, the enemy, meaning at the t...