Santa: 1967

Gallery Article by Alvis 3.1

Christmas Eve 2008

 

Santa has always used leading edge aircraft to deliver his presents, and what better plane to use than the XB-70 Valkyrie? It was fast, huge and had an enormous range...and well, it just looked so darn cool. He arranged to have the plans sent to the North Pole and had his elves build one for service. By the time he had it finished, the USAF had cancelled the Valkyrie, and Santa was faced with a very expensive aircraft with no future source of spares. That aside, he decided to fly it one year, and one year only. 

All went well until his return to base at the end of the evening, when he had a near collision with a couple of trainee reindeer, and the plane was heavily damaged upon landing. It never flew again, and was broken up to build later aircraft in the 70s. 

Click on images below to see larger images

Photos of the XB-70 in Santa Service are difficult to come by, and have faded terribly since they were taken in 1967 with a Polaroid Swinger camera. I have attempted to recreate the fairly unique scheme that the Valkyrie was painted in that year, including the false sleigh and reindeer hooves on the underside. As a factual aside, the XB-70 was never referred to as either Valkyrie of XB-70 in Santa service, but a name more fitting for how it looked: The Tannen-Bomber. 

Alvis 3.1

Photos and text © by Alvis 3.1