At Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., company pilot William Bridgeman pilots the Douglas X-3 Stiletto to the highest speed this grossly underpowered research aircraft will reach, Mach 1.21—and this only comes after he put the aircraft in a shallow dive. The X-3 was designed to fly at sustained speeds above Mach 2 for longer than 30 minutes at high altitudes.
Shield AI recently received $50 million from the Navy and DIU to support development of its autonomous fighter jet X-BAT, but the Air Force isn’t investing yet for several reasons, experts say.