I'm John Bachelor of fun with Josh Dean telling stories of events that connect that I had no idea what the glue was.

The glue was Kelly Johnson and one man at Skunkworks.

And we're now going to connect drone technology, which now dominates not only the battlefield,

but all future planning in the 21st century for combatant units from a squad to a division to

air defense for a nation, the Golden Dome, all with drones. But it's Kelly who answers a request

by the Air Force to take photographs or gather information about it.

Is it a Chinese thermonuclear test site?

Is that what they're after, Josh?

Yes.

So the Chinese start in the 1960s to develop a nuclear program.

We are surprised by a detonation.

I believe it's in Mongolia.

It's too dangerous to overfly. They're worried about pilots getting shot down. We are surprised by a detonation. I believe it's in Mongolia.

It's too dangerous to overfly.

They're worried about pilots getting shot down and creating an international incident.

And so Kelly's got this new supersonic high-flying blackbird and proposes that they use it as a launch platform for a supersonic drone.

So basically launching a drone off the back

of another plane. So it's the world's first drone. It looks like a little baby version of the

Blackbird and it sits on the top. And it takes off and flies thousands of miles, takes pictures

and then turns around, I guess if it gets shot down, no one dies.

So that's, you know, the worst case scenario.

You don't lose a pilot.

...