As with most things, these illustrations have a bit of a background behind them. I know your first thought must be "Boy, somebody
sure had alot of spare time on their hands", but that's not the case at all. These were actually created as a bit of humorous stress
relief for Dennis and I during the last few weeks of finishing the new book "Valkyrie : North American's Mach 3 Superbomber"
for Specialty Press. Not only did we have to finish this project, we also had to finish the revised WarbirdTech book on the Blackbird, 
and Dennis was still finishing the layout for his X-Planes Photo Scrapbook. All three books were due to the printer the same month 
so needless to say stress levels were a little high. As a bit of stress relief I would create one or two of these each day and send 
them to Dennis to help give him a little humor and break up the brutal pace we were on. Anyway's, all the books made it to the printer
on time and should be available by the end of October. I hope you enjoy the following illustrations.            Tony Landis  -  October 2004

The ultimate in high speed rescue, A B-70A converted for Arctic Rescue. Note the Rescue equipment located in the alert pod on the bottom of the aircraft and the landing ski's for a smooth touchdown in the snow.

Had the B-70 gone into sevice in Vietnam, it could possibly have looked something like this.

Of course they would have needed a guide by which to apply the S.E.A. camo, so there would have been a page inserted in the T.O. so they would know exactly how to do it.

Mach 3+ AWACS, anyone......

...Or how about the all-black Special Ops RS-70.

And what would you do with all of your mach 3 aircraft at the end of their service life, turn them into QB-70 target drones, what else!

NASA of course would want their own fleet of Space Shuttle transports so they could get the Shuttle back to Florida in just a few hours.

My favorite one of all. Can you just imagine the deafening roar of 24 J93's as the Thunderbirds diamond formation comes right over the crowd at a few hundred feet.

With such a complex aircraft the Air Force decided they should have dedicated crews to fly the B-70. Two airframes were pulled from the production line and modified into twin-cockpit TB-70B trainers. Small ventral fins were added for extra stability at mach 3+.

The cancellation of the F-108 left the B-70 without a fighter escort. In the tradition of the XF-85, one aircraft tested a FICON system by carrying the Convair Fish as a dedicated interceptor. (Hey, if you believe AvWeek's story about Blackstar, the you'll believe anything!)

And what President would be without their own mach 3 transport....