energia: North American A-5 Vigilante

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

The North American A-5 Vigilante is an American carrier-based supersonic bomber and reconnaissance aircraft designed and built by North American Aviation (NAA) for the United States Navy. Before the 1962 unification of Navy and Air Force designations, it was designated A3J. Development of the A-5 had started in 1954 as a private venture by NAA, who sought to produce a capable supersonic long-distance bomber as a successor to the abortive North American XA2J Super Savage. It was a large and complex aircraft that incorporated several innovative features, such as being the first bomber to feature a digital computer, while its ability to attain speeds of up to Mach 2 while carrying a nuclear st…

Evidence: 47 • authority: 72

The Rockwell B-1 Lancer is a supersonic variable-sweep wing heavy bomber used by the United States Air Force. It has been nicknamed the "Bone" (from "B-One"). As of 2026, it is one of the U.S. Air Force's three strategic bombers, along with the B-2 Spirit and the B-52 Stratofortress. It carries up to a 75,000-pound (34,000 kg) payload. The B-1 was first envisioned in the 1960s as a bomber that would combine the Mach 2 speed of the B-58 Hustler with the range and payload of the B-52, ultimately replacing both. After a long series of studies, North American Rockwell (subsequently renamed Rockwell International, B-1 division, later acquired by Boeing) won the design contest for what emerged as…

Evidence: 24 • authority: 72

The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is a retired American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the USAAF and USAF during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, the Superfortress was designed for high-altitude strategic bombing, but also excelled in low-altitude night incendiary bombing and in dropping naval mines to blockade Japan. Silverplate B-29s dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and remain the only system to deliver nuclear weapons in combat. One of the largest aircraft of World War II, the B-29 was designed with state-of-the-art technology, which included a pres…