Word: bomber
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...last week, a sleek, black-and-grey light bomber took off from Alder-grove airbase in Northern Ireland and streaked westward, outrunning the thunder of its twin jets. Soaring to 41,000 ft., the R.A.F.'s Canberra raced the sun above it. Four hours and 40 minutes later, it skimmed down to Newfoundland's Gander field. The sun had made the swing in only 3½ hours. But the Canberra, averaging 445 m.p.h., had made the fastest Atlantic crossing ever, the hard way-30 minutes faster than a Mosquito bomber's five hours and ten minutes made...
...super-bomber, says the Air Force, must have a combat radius of 5,000 miles with a bombload of 10,000 lbs., should be able to hit 500 m.p.h. at 55,000 ft. It must carry guns and, perhaps, air-to-air guided missiles, too. But its principal defenses will be altitude and speed. Interceptors are faster than bombers, but if a bomber flies high enough and fast enough, a short-range interceptor has a hard time getting into range before its fuel is gone...
...meet these Air Force requirements Boeing will offer its XB-52, believed to look much like its six-jet B-47 medium bomber, now in production. The XB-52 has wings swept back at a 35° angle, and eight turbojet engines...
Another category is the "Superman" theme--with emphasis on the bravery of the officers. In this one, a limping bomber, armed with a book of matches and three drums of gasoline, takes every chance in the annals of heroism, claiming half the enemy fleet destroyed; the other half is taken care of by a submarine commander, C. Dexter Collins of Chestnut Hill. Among the sub crew are Levine from Brooklyn, Gambaroni from the other side of the tracks, and George Washington Lincoln from Georgia...
Rommel's own time was almost up. On July 17, 1944, a strafing Allied fighter-bomber caught his staff car on a back road in Normandy and sent it spinning out of control. Physically tough, Rommel recovered from a triple fracture of the skull. But during the convalescence, Hitler had been tracking down everyone suspected of being in on the plot. He gave Rommel his choice of a trial or suicide. Rommel chose poison, and Hitler gave him a hero's funeral. The question Biographer Young never answers is how his shining hero could stomach the Nazi program...