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
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