What Aviation Week revealed on February 15, 1954, hit like a sledgehammer: The Soviet Union had jet bombers capable of striking the United States with nuclear warheads, without refueling.Many dismissed it as hysteria. But when 28 Myasishchev M-4s thundered over Moscow five weeks later, denial collapsed. At that pace, the USSR could field more than 800 by 1960. They would be unstoppable.And what did the United States have to defend itself?An interceptor that could barely break Mach 1, obsolete before it ever flew.There was only one answer to the bomber gap, and it bordered on insanity: build a Mach 3 super-interceptor that could chase bombers halfway across the Atlantic.By the time it blipped on their radar, the Soviets were in for something special: a nuclear-tipped “telephone pole.”