With the Rockwell B-1 Lancer program out of the picture thanks to budget cuts, aircraft manufacturers began scrambling for ways to become the United States’ premiere missile platform.Facing bankruptcy, Boeing attempted to do what nobody else had done: modify their aircraft to fit as many as 72 air-launched cruise missiles, more than three B-52 bombers combined.The effort would transform their commercial airliner into a lethal force capable of wiping out enemy targets from hundreds of miles away.The ambitious plan was good enough, but things didn’t go as expected…