B-52 bomber, dropped from the bomber, and then accelerated to Mach 7 by a booster rocket.
Certain was captured by the Vietnamese in 1972 after his B-52 bomber was shot down.
Even shorter was the weekend that it took to create the proposal for the fabled B-52 bomber.
Flinn, a 1993 Air Force Academy graduate, became a B-52 bomber pilot in 1995 as the service began allowing women to fly warplanes.
The sleek, missile-shaped WaveRider was released from a B-52 bomber 50, 000 feet above the Pacific and was initially accelerated by a rocket before the scramjet kicked in.
That effort produced the iconic B-52 bomber featured in the movie Dr. Strangelove that has played a role in every major U.S. military campaign from Vietnam to Afghanistan.
FORBES: Air Force Wants A Bomber That Balances Cost With Capability
Pinned down by the onslaught, King said the troops called in "close air support" from a B-52 bomber on regular patrol over Afghanistan, which dropped seven large bombs, ending the confrontation.
The administration has also made no decision about whether or how it will replace the B-52 bomber, which first flew in 1952, and under current plans will continue to fly until possibly 2037.
In fact, the Air Force has already begun testing a program to certify coal-based synthetic fuels for the B-52 bomber, a process that may lead to synthetic fuel use in all of its planes.
The B-1B has some stealth features: A smooth design and the use of radar-absorbing materials gave it an appearance on radar that is said to be only 1% of that of the older B-52 bomber, even though it is only a little shorter - at 146 feet (44.5 metres) - and weighs almost the same.
Despite the passage of 60 years since its inception, the B-52 remains the most common heavy bomber in the Air Force fleet.
FORBES: Air Force Wants A Bomber That Balances Cost With Capability
At present the nation's long-range bomber force consists primarily of two aircraft: the B-52 and the B-1.
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