Added 1 new A* page:So per the dialogue in the previous page, this ship Selenis and the Major are trying to get to is the "XA-47." It took me some time to find a name that short that didn't Google up a ton of stuff. XA-47 finally tested fairly clean--but an XB-47, as it happens, was the designation of the prototype version of the B-47 Stratojet, a jet-propelled USAF bomber; the first XB-47 flew in 1947 (from Boeing Field in Seattle, woo) (oh and I think the "XB-47" in '47 was a coincidence :P). Their swept-wing design was revolutionary for bombers, and their overall design was a major innovation that would lead to the commercial jet airliners we see today. The 2000+ B-47s built, designed to drop nuclear bombs on the Soviet Union, never saw combat as bombers (thank goodness!!), but they were used extensively for reconnaissance, and a total of three were shot down by Russian MiG fighters while engaging in high-altitude snooping or the like over several decades of service.
Several variants of the B-47 were equipped with rocket boosters for extra-short takeoffs, and that's really why I'm making this post--because they just look so darn cool taking off with those boosters! These are B-47Es:
image by US Government (source)
image by USAF (source)
Fwoosh!
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