Uh...hate to tell you, but the XB-70 came to being AFTER Kennedy was elected. (First flight Sept. 21, 1964)
Had multiple problems which seemed to get worked out. It could do as advertised and hit Mach 3. What truly killed it was the mid-air accident that killed a chase plane pilot and one of the Valkyrie pilots.
Nice try, but guess who was still Defense Secretary in 1964...and if Nixon had been elected, I seriously doubt that guy would have been in a position to kill it.
“...the XB-70 came to being AFTER Kennedy was elected...
Had multiple problems which seemed to get worked out. It could do as advertised and hit Mach 3. What truly killed it was the mid-air accident that killed a chase plane pilot and one of the Valkyrie pilots.” [hoagy62, post 24]
None of these statements are correct.
As early as 1947, the US Air Force began drafting a requirement for a manned bomber capable of supersonic flight and intercontinental range.
The B-70 was developed to satisfy WS-110A, a specification published in 1955 to answer a mission requirement USAF had published the year before.
Research was cutting-edge and necessarily complex; changing requirements, politics (national, interservice, intraservice etc), bureaucratic reorganization, and competing concepts combined to delay progress yet more. Selection of North American as the system contractor was announced in late 1957. Initial operational capability slipped, from 1963 to 1965.
Late in 1959, President Eisenhower reckoned that forecast funding levels would delay operational capability until 1967 or 1969. On 1 December 1959, USAF announced the program would be reduced to a single airframe and most subsystem development was canceled.
The games weren’t over.
The 1960 election campaigns rekindled interest; a new contract was signed in late September; production of 12 aircraft was authorized.
The incoming Kennedy administration reevaluated the program and altered it in April 1961, to a development-only effort. Three aircraft were authorized.
From August 1961 through April 1962, the administration tussled with Congress over the fate of the program. The legislators voted funds for up to 210 aircraft to be built in a modified reconnaissance/strike configuration; Secretary of Defense Robert S McNamara made clear his complete opposition to any new manned bomber and refused to release the funds.
The first air vehicle was rolled out in early May 1964. A couple months later, the program was reduced further: air vehicle 3, then being built, was canceled. The test program was reduced to 180 flight hours.
First flight took place on 21 September 1964.
The mid-air collision resulting in the destruction of air vehicle 2 occurred on 8 June 1966.
Final flight took place on 4 February 1969.
It can thus be seen that the B-70 predated the election of John F Kennedy by a number years, and that mid-air collision did not stop the program.
Forum members interested in examining the subject in detail should read _Valkyrie: North American’s Mach 3 Superbomber_ by Dennis R Jenkins and Tony R Landis (North Branch MN: Specialty Press, 2004) ISBN-13 978-1-58007-130-7