20 Cold War-Era Warplanes of the U.S. Air Force

B-45 Tornado

The North American B-45 Tornado was the United States military’s first jet bomber, and saw service in Korea as a bomber and reconnaissance platform. The B-45 could carry both conventional and nuclear ordnance (22,000-lb. capacity) and began deploying to bases in the United Kingdom in 1952. The U.S. Air Force sent several RB-45s to the Royal Air Force for top-secret overflight missions of the Soviet Union during the early 1950s.