In article , J.Kahn says...

wrote:
Quite a lot of sources name the Valkyrie as an extremely high lift
over drag efficient aircraft. According to Wikipedia:

"This gave the Valkyrie the best lift:drag ratio of any powered manned
aircraft ever built and allowed a much better aspect ratio on take-off
and landing. Some recent SST designs are considering this as an
option."

Anyone knows l/dmax of the XB-70? Commercial airliners are around 1:18
while motorgliders (and the U2) come close to 1:30 An L/D of 1:30
seems impossible for an aircraft like the Valkyrie?


The normal subsonic LD would be very low, about 6 or 7 to 1 at best.
The supersonic shockwave riding phenomenon they are talking about is
something else though and could I guess be true, although it's
surprising no other supersonic a/c has tried to exploit it.

It would ride the shock wave only when the wing tips were drooped if I remember
correctly,don't know it it ever went supersonic with the tips up.But it was a
good gimmick.

Chuck S