6. Boeing B-47 Stratojet
When the B-47 Stratojet first took to the skies in 1947, few people in the Air Force, or even Boeing, were enthusiastic about the design. The B-47 used swept-wing technology captured from Nazi Germany and an unusual tricycle undercarriage, which led many to think it would serve as no more than a research plane. But by mid-1948 it became clear to the Air Force and Boeing executives that the airplane far surpassed all of its contemporaries with straight wings. Test pilot Chuck Yeager was sent to follow a B-47 in a jet fighter to check its speed. He radioed to the B-47's civilian pilot, "I can't keep up." The next day, the B-47 set a new cross-country speed record at an average of 609.8 mph. Within only a few years, the plane became the primary bomber for the Strategic Air Command and eventually more than 2,000 B-47s were built. Though without the range and payload of its successor, the B-52, the B-47 "held the line" as a nuclear deterrent bomber in the early years of the Cold War.

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