Had the Second World War continued into 1946, it’s almost certain that the fight for the skies over Europe and the Pacific would have been dominated by a whole new generation of combat aircraft — jets.

Already by mid-1944, RAF Gloster Meteors were shooting down V-1 rockets over southern England. Germany too had deployed more than a thousand of its own jets like the Me-262. By the war’s final year, the Luftwaffe could boast nearly 30 “jet aces”. Even Japan was unleashing dozens of piloted kamikaze cruise missiles (known as MXY-7 Ohkas) against American warships, and not without some degree of success.

But even these amazing first forays into the jet-age would have paled in comparison with what both Axis and Allied commanders were planning had the war continued. In fact, during the conflict’s final months, American, German, British and other air forces were already preparing to unleash…