Why???

Something has always bothered me, and seing 20001 sitting in the hangar next to 60-6935 at Wright Patterson made me wonder again. And that would be the first XB-70 and second YF-12A 😀

Why in the world was the Mach 3 A-12/SR-71 deemed a survivable reconnaissance platform, well into the end of the 20th century I might add, and the XB-70 knocked as being not survivable itself? If Mach 3 speed and altitude worked for one, why not the other?

Chew on this: had bomber pilots been cruising around in the RS-70 over Vietnam, they would have been much safer than if they were in a B-52, and fewer (if any) heavy bomber crews would have been lost.

Sure, a lot of it had to do with the idiot named McNamara, but really now, what an obvious contradiction! Yes, the OXCART/SENIOR CROWN had lower RCS going for it (under 10m2), but there were EXTENSIVE studies done on reducing the head-on RCS of the XB-70/RS-70 as well. Many of the results, most of them only involving where to place RAM coatings, were rather incredible. The aircraft already had one thing going for it, the serpentine intake ducts, which already reduced its head-on RCS by masking the enigine compressor faces from hostile radars.

Anyone else care to comment?