So,
The XB-70 crashed here at Edwards
The "Flight Test Mission" was all finished.
A few other jets were "in the air" at the time
The Engine manufacturing REP for "GE?" was here and asked if all the "GE" (?) powered aircraft could do a formation and Fly By for a photo op.
Photo Chase was flying with the test Mission.
(We do this on the F-22 for many missions. Called a "Chase with Photog")
All Formed up and that is when the Vortex on the right side aft tail pulled the F-104 into the right tail of the XB-70
Moments later the catastrophic crash occurred.
Let us not forget, it was Joe walker flying the F-104 (Famous X-15 and everything else pilot)
NASA Chief Test Pilot Joe Walker (
F-
104 pilot) and Carl Cross (
XB-
70 co-pilot) died.
Excerpt from "Secret Heroes"
The F-104 Starfighter flown by Test Pilot Walker and two other supersonic jets, one flown by Air Force Col. Joseph F. Cotton, had closed their formation for the photo shoot when suddenly the collision occurred. Joe Walker’s F-104 was in flames just after impact with the XB-70, both vertical stabilizers have been sheared off of the XB-70.
Some close to the investigation of the crash believed that if Walker got in so close as bring the tail up under the XB-70 wing, the result would be a rapid pitch up. The reason being, the effectiveness of the F-104 tail was neutralized and the F-104 aircraft would normally pitch up. With that, the left wing of the F-104 struck the XB-70 wing causing the pitch and roll across the top to continue or accelerate. Walker had not yet flown the XB-70, and was scheduled for the next day. Consequently, he had not experienced the remarkably rapid acceleration capabilities of the Valkyrie.
NASA's Director of Biological research (Major Roman, M.D.), who was the investigating doctor at the site, reported that Walker's F-104 was inverted as it passed across the top of the XB-70 and struck the XB-70 vertical tails and that the vertical stabilizer of the XB-70 had split Walker's cockpit and flight-helmet in half.
Having slammed across the top of the bomber's tail assembly --- damaging one of the tail vertical stabilizers and breaking off the other --- the Starfighter then cart wheeled and exploded into a plume of flame. XB-70 started a flat spin shortly after collision of the F-104 because of the missing vertical stabs and part of the wing. A hued vapor trail of JP-8 fuel spewed from the XB-70. Though the engines are still running, the craft did not catch fire.
The crash site is visited yearly here at Edwards AFB
(We have a lot of them out here, A DANGEROUS business)
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Joe Walker
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