bkev
(Note: the SS America and SS United States shared the same designer - William Francis Gibbs). Not sure about the SS America, but at least on the SS United States, what wasn’t metal was heavily asbestos - which is the primary reason they had to completely strip the interior fittings on it. It’s mostly an empty shell now. That lack of interior decoration could be considered a significant reason it won’t likely be adapted/reused, which is a shame; it’s a beautiful ship.
At the risk of “arguing with someone on the internet”, I think you may have your chronology backwards, since it seems the Tu-160 was designed to match the US aircraft you mention.
The Valkyrie was a late 1950’s to early 1960’s design with physical prototypes existing and flying by 1964.
The B-1A design began in 1965, with the first flight in 1974. This would have been the closest western analog to the Tu-160, since the B-1B derivative had a different focus - low-altitude terrain following - since it was believed that the high-altitude/high speed designs like the B-1A were vulnerable to newer Soviet missile designs. Stealth was also becoming increasingly important to US command due to the same concerns about missiles.
The design competition that begat the Tu-160 began in 1972, with a first flight in 1981. I’m not saying it’s not a great plane - by all accounts it is very capable - but US designs were not done in response to it.
You pose an interesting question - one you'd think a god would be able to answer, especially if that god supposedly created us. In fact, if he can't answer it, I would question whether he is a god.
One might further theorize that the design profession itself might be fundamentally changed by it. When you think about it, the mouse and keyboard isn't an ideal medium for this type of design; it's a crude interaction. Why look at a scaled wireframe of a structure when you might be able to virtually build a structure while being inside it - using your hands and eyes, like clay. You could use your arms to gesture, saying "I want this wall here, and to be this high"; "I want a 3'x5' window on this wall, here", etc. You could mold structures with your hands with this type of virtual reality and some type of motion tracking. It would be ground-breaking.
http://www.museumofflight.org/aircraft/lockheed-m-21-blackbi...
If you're in Seattle and have an opportunity, visit the Museum's restoration facility at Paine Field in Everett (at the opposite end of the runway for the 747/widebody factory.) It's a nondescript warehouse manned mostly by super kind volunteer retirees. Unlike the roped-off museum experience, at the restoration facility you can touch and pick up things. The last time I was there I held a Merlin piston in my hands. So cool.