It’s a long way up to the cockpit of the surviving North American XB-70 Valkyrie prototype, on display in the Research and Development Hall at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, near Dayton, Ohio. I snapped this when I visited in May this year – overseas visitors don’t forget to bring your passport if you want to get into the R&D and Presidential Halls as they are in the overflow section of the Museum that’s on Wright-Patterson Air Base itself; booking early for the bus over is also recommended, as is having a plan for loking around as you only have around 45 minutes per trip to cover both halls.

There’s lots of weird and wonderful macinery in the R&D Hall but there are all parked real close to each other so it is difficult to get a good look at any one aircraft without having your view blocked by something else. All the more reason to support the Museum (which is free access) so it can add on some more display halls to the Museum proper and better display the Presidential aircraft and those in the current R&D Hall. It would also mean that the collection of aircraft still displayed aoutside could be better protected from the elements. These include a number of significant aircraft like Prison Taxi, the C-141 that repatriated the first of the Vietnam POWs; one of the few remaining C-125 Raiders designed just in case this whole helicopter thing didn’t work out; a Junkers Ju-52, trusty Tante Ju; and the first NKC-135, the first working airborne laser system…