The plans include getting the B-2 and B-52 back into the skies... along with the XB-70, SR-71/72, An-225... the Convair B-36, the Yak-141, and simply launching a space rocket... and, naturally, landing it too.In actual flight, there was only the X-15... the Mi-12, and the Caspian Sea Monster, and that’s it...
🚀 North American X-15This American experimental rocket-powered aircraft didn't just fly; it set the absolute speed record for manned aircraft (7,274 km/h, or Mach 6.72), which remains unbroken to this day.• Status: Three built airframes completed 199 flights in the 1960s. One rocket plane crashed, while the two surviving ones now hold places of honor in US museums: one at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., and the other at the National Museum of the USAF in Dayton, Ohio.🚁 Mil Mi-12 (V-12)The heaviest and most capable lifting helicopter in human history, built in the USSR. It performed fully functional flights and, in 1969, lifted an unprecedented 44.2 tons of cargo into the air.• Status: The project was canceled because the military shifted its tactical goals, and conventional aircraft could handle transport more cost-effectively. Only two prototypes were built. Both survive: one is in the Central Air Force Museum in Monino, and the other is on permanent display at the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant in Tomilino.🌊 KM (The Caspian Sea Monster)An experimental Soviet ekranoplan (ground-effect vehicle) that was the largest flying craft in the world at the time of its creation in 1966. It flew just a few meters above the water using the "ground effect" at speeds up to 500 km/h.• Status: The "Monster" was successfully tested on the Caspian Sea for 15 years. In 1980, due to a piloting error, it crashed, settled on the water, and sank a week later. Because of its colossal size and weight, it was never recovered and still rests at the bottom of the Caspian Sea. (Its direct descendant, the "Lun"-class ekranoplan, was recently towed ashore in Derbent to become the centerpiece of Patriot Park).