From: Monte Davis 

Adam Flinton  wrote:

>The real reason was the increasing reach of SU SAM's.

No, the real reason was that with the XB-70 (just as with the B-58 Hustler
before it), the USAF was facing acquisition, fuel, and operations costs
that were too high w/r/t the benefits.  "We can have eight
techno-flagship wet dream uber-bombers, or we can have three wings of
fighters and four base upgrades."

Really not that different from Concorde (or all the Orient Express -
National Aerospace Plane- etcs. that haven't been built). Pushing a very
big aircraft through drastically increasing drag at Mach 2, 3, n... is
cool, state-of-the-art -- and to date, not judged worth it by air forces OR
airlines.

-Monte

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