From stratosphere to exosphere, the Pentagon is now producing an armada of fantastical new aerospace weapons worthy of Buck Rogers. The Air Force also made aviation history by test firing the first missile from one of those drones. The air war in Vietnam was also an impetus for the development of the Pentagon’s global telecommunications satellite system, another important first. To service all this growth, the Air Force was training 350 drone pilots, more than all its bomber and fighter pilots combined. Since 2003, both DARPA and the Air Force have struggled to shatter the barrier for suborbital speeds by developing the dart-shaped Falcon Hypersonic Cruise Vehicle.

Source: Huffington Post September 11, 2017 16:01 UTC