XB-70 Valkyrie - What are the markings / dots on the roof?

docubyte

ACCESS: Restricted
Joined
29 September 2019
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
I suspect they are the same as the black spots on the canards in your first image, which means they are probably tufting for visualizing aerodynamic flows over the aircraft. At the resolution of the image, all we see are the dots, not the strings sticking out from the dots.
 
I suspect that these were the "lift points" used to hoist the ejection seat cover panels/doors away for removal/installation of the seats. Note that the positioning of the "dots" is identical on each of the doors. (Note that seats were installed in only the pilot/copilot positions, however the aft doors could have been used to test equipment/rack access.)
 
In this model build - the builder has referred to them as 'observation markings' - maybe they are just for that?
 
"Aft doors" are ground escape hatches.
 
Think those were encapsulated seats like those on the B-58 as well.
 
I have several books on the XB-70 and browsing through them I found a few photos that are interesting, and the relevant parts are attached here.

None of the photos that I have seen so far show crosses with or without a line under it.

XB-70 (JC p75).jpg XB-70 (JC p37).jpg
There seem to be three dots on each of the four escape hatches, as well as five dots on each of the canards (on both photos two dots on the port canard are in the shadow of the fuselage but visible if one concentrates on them).

Note that the dots on the ground escape hatches are not in line with each other, so that seems to exclude mechanical origin as it would not make sense to do it different on two similar hatches.

On the photo below it can be seen that the dots were already visible on the mock-up which was built in 1959, five years before the rollout of the first prototype. It is not clear when this photo of the mock-up was taken, so the dots could have been be added later, but that still begs the question: what is so important about those dots that they were shown on the mock-up?

XB-70 mockup (DJ&TL p99).jpg
 
I have several books on the XB-70 and browsing through them I found a few photos that are interesting, and the relevant parts are attached here.

None of the photos that I have seen so far show crosses with or without a line under it.

View attachment 639221 View attachment 639222
There seem to be three dots on each of the four escape hatches, as well as five dots on each of the canards (on both photos two dots on the port canard are in the shadow of the fuselage but visible if one concentrates on them).

Note that the dots on the ground escape hatches are not in line with each other, so that seems to exclude mechanical origin as it would not make sense to do it different on two similar hatches.

On the photo below it can be seen that the dots were already visible on the mock-up which was built in 1959, five years before the rollout of the first prototype. It is not clear when this photo of the mock-up was taken, so the dots could have been be added later, but that still begs the question: what is so important about those dots that they were shown on the mock-up?

View attachment 639224
Thanks for this input - really thorough assessment - I'm led to think now, they're some kind of 'test marking', not tufts, nor mechanical.
 

Similar threads

Please donate to support the forum.

Back
Top Bottom