The North American A-5 Vigilante was a Cold War era carrier based supersonic bomber that entered service for the US Navy in 1961. Capable of attaining speeds of Mach 2 and carrying nuclear payloads, ...

The A-5 Vigilante was built to be the Navy’s ultimate high-speed nuclear bomber, capable of Mach 2+ strikes from aircraft carriers. But this Cold War marvel quickly proved to be a dangerous idea—its ...

In 1961, the A-5 was piloted to an altitude of 91,000 feet—four miles higher than the existing world record. We recently covered the XF-108 Rapier, a proposed interceptor aircraft that was cancelled ...