That aside I'm really fasicinated by those fast planes. I mean, it's now public knowledge that the SR-71 leaked fuel between gaps in the fuselage onto the tarmac. Because of that they only fueled it up a little to get into the air without leaking too much.

Then after take off, speeding up until the thermal expansion closed those gaps, and full aerial refueling directly after that.

How did they solve that with the Valkyrie I wonder? Did similar things occur there, or were of no concern because of different materials, dimensions, make, etc.?

Edit: > my dictionary claims it's colloquial...

Not more so than The front fell off! :-)