Italeri – 1282 – XB-70 VALKYRIE

Description:

XB – 70 VALKYRIE

Unassembled plastic model kit in 1/72 scale of a U.S. North American XB-70 Valkyrie, a prototype of a planned strategic supersonic bomber designed during 50s and 60s. Only two prototypes were built.

The XB-70 Valkyrie was a six engines delta wing design capable of sustained flight at Mach 3 speeds and flying at high-altitudes not matched by any contemporary Soviet interceptor. During a test flight in 1966 the XB-70 Valkyrie reached Mach 3.08 and in all test series sustained a Match 3 speed for 32 minutes.

During its development, improvements on ICBMs technology as well as on surface-to-air air defenses put the project on cancellation as strategic bomber and limited to an experimental aircraft to study of aerodynamics, propulsion, and other subjects related to large supersonic transports.

The very expensive project was totally cancelled in 1969, but data from the project was used in later develops such the B-1 Lancer,  SR-71 Blackbird or in counter espionage, the Soviet Tupolev Tu-144.

This is an original AMT/Ertl kit tooled in 1995 and then released under Italeri brand in 2008 and 2011, always with same content except decals, which are different between the AMT/Ertl releases and Italeri ones. Includes decal sheet for the two prototypes built.