130,000 Horsepower: Launching the Thunderjet from a Standstill At Edwards AFB. In the high-stakes paranoia of the early Cold War, the United States Air Force faced a terrifying strategic problem: if the Soviet Union launched a surprise attack, the first targets destroyed would be the massive concrete runways required for jet fighters. Without runways, air superiority would be lost in minutes. The solution proposed by military engineers was one of the most radical and physically punishing experim

23 January 1951 – Thirty-three F-84s of the U.S. Air Force’s 27th Fighter-Escort Wing engaged 30 MiG-15s in a dogfight over the skies of Sinuiju. In less than a minute Captains Allen McGuire and William Slaughter each destroyed a MiG while First Lieutenant Jacob Kratt scored two kills, the first double MiG kill of the war. The F-84 was the USAF's first post-war fighter. It made its initial flight on February 26, 1946, and began rolling off the production lines in June 1947, and by the time produ