@NotTheFakeNate
For those that don't know, the XB-70A flew quite well, aside from overheating landing gear, but one of the chase planes up there (prob for a photo op) hit the stabilizer and brought the prototype down in a ball of fire. Sadly they didn't pursue further development and the UK/French Concord ended up winning the race to supersonic commercial flight. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2zba4u
Note the Chase planes included an F-4, an F-104 and T-38s among others nearby.
@Romquest Yeah, The XB-70 was intended to be a long-range, high altitude (70k+ feet) , high speed (Mach 3) bomber replacement for the B-52. It hit all of its performance objectives but was still not capable of defeating advanced Soviet SAM systems. So it was cancelled as a bomber.
As for the accident, that was a photo shoot. The little F-104 on the starboard wing got sucked into the wingtip vortex, flipped upside down and crashed into the XB-70 from above.
@NotTheFakeNate Yep I remember the event as a kid. You are of course correct it was a bomber, (sorry if i was unclear) but the thinking at the time was driving supersonic commercial aviation as well, as so many military things have. Early development of the concord was happening at the same time. Cool stuff! Here of course, is what replaced the XB-70 for us.
@NotTheFakeNate Speaking of the Buff, here is what a stick of retarded Mk 82 500lb bombs looks like going off in the Nevada desert dropped at 2000ft. Taken from a hill 3 miles away. Arclight!
@Romquest LOL. And the BUFF is still dropping bombs! Let's tally up all of its "replaclements."
B-58
XB-70
B-1A
B-1B
B-2
and now the B-21... I'll believe it when I see it.