B-70 RCS Reduction Studies

CaseyKnight

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I can't find any images of this, but I've read about studies that were undertaken to bring the B-70's RCS down to that of the B-52. Plans called for 10-20 degrees of dihedral to be added to the wings, vertical tail-surfaces to be canted inward 10-20 degrees, as well as the addition of slanted sides to the lower fuselage.

Does anybody have anything to corroborate this?
 
CaseyKnight said:
I can't find any images of this, but I've read about studies that were undertaken to bring the B-70's RCS down to that of the B-52. Plans called for 10-20 degrees of dihedral to be added to the wings, vertical tail-surfaces to be canted inward 10-20 degrees, as well as the addition of slanted sides to the lower fuselage.

Does anybody have anything to corroborate this?
I'm no expert but I feel the rcs of the XB-70A aircraft were already less than that of B-52 aircraft. -SP
 
According to Landis & Jenkins' huge book Valkyrie: North American's Mach 3 Superbomber, most of the studies focused on IR signature reduction, and some of those got pretty detailed. They do mention that RAM applications were studied, including on the inner surfaces of the intakes. Remak and Ventolo's book XB-70 Valkyrie: The Ride to Valhalla also mentions the RAM treatments (although in far less detail), and they've got a polar RCS plot showing the RCS of the XB-70 from various angles. From head on it appears to have a very small RCS for its size of well under 100 m^2, with a 1,000 m^2 spike to the left and right of center due to the untreated intakes. RAM would've cut those down significantly giving the XB-70 an RCS of well under 100 m^2 to an angle of about 45 degrees left and right of center in the forward hemisphere. From the side, yeah, it looked like a small moon on radar! But so did any other large aircraft at the time, really.

So, while side-on both of them were massive targets, from directly forward the B-70 design did have a greatly reduced RCS compared to the B-52, which is often quoted as having an RCS of 100 m^2. It wasn't anywhere near being stealthy, but it was a huge improvement for the time, and would've been further improved through the addition of RAM.

At the very least, B-70s bombing Vietnam would have been far more survivable than the B-52s employed. OXCARTs and Blackbirds proved that Mach 3 at altitude could beat the Vietnamese SAM systems.
 
http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/21226/2/rl2101.0001.001.pdf
Title: Radar Cross-Section of the B-70 Aircraft
Authors: Hiatt, R. E.
Senior, Thomas B. A.
Issue Date: Feb-1960
Publisher: University of Michigan. Radiation Laboratory
 
Don't want to rain on the parade but, uh, the IR signature of the Valkyrie was certainly enormous. That huge steel thing flying at mach 3 - hot as hell, tons of IR.
Very high speed and stealth are not in good terms...
 

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