XB-70 Valkyrie Project Honeycomb steel 2 pieces North American Aviation

Description

You have the opportunity to buy two pieces of honeycomb steel from the 1960s development program of the XB-70 Valkyrie Project by North American Aviation. These are not pieces from the aircraft but rather pieces used in testing material for the aircraft. The XB-70 was designed to be a supersonic bomber. To go supersonic air friction would cause aluminum, the light weight metal traditionally used in aircraft design, to melt. Stainless steel would not melt but a solid piece would be too heavy. The answer was to create honeycomb steel. This provided the strength and melting temperature of steel with much less weight. Amazing advance in technology. Great piece of history.
Some have asked how I can authenticate these came from the XB-70 program. My father worked on the program for North American in the 1960s. He brought these pieces home and would share them with our elementary class showing his pictures of the finished product. He was an unofficial photographer of the XB-70 and the company used some of his photos which really annoyed the official photographers. We attended rollouts and some of the flights.