National Affairs: Vhoosh

Streaking over California’s Mojave Desert at an altitude of 39,000 ft. one ay last week, Air Force Major Adrian . Drew pushed his F-ioiA twin-jet McDonnell Voodoo to full throttle and full afterburner, broke the world’s official aerial speed record. Previous record, flown in March 1956 by a British Fairey Delta: ,132 m.p.h. Drew’s official time, an average of one pass into the wind and one ass with it: 1,207.6 m.p.h.*

*Still well below the unofficial mark achieved by the experimental Bell X2, which hit 2,260 m.p.h. and crashed last year.