a swept wing or delta wing planform. The Boeing B-52, designed in the 1950s, continues in service as a subsonic long-range heavy bomber. While the Soviets never matched the performance of the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress with a jet aircraft, the intercontinental range Tupolev Tu-95 turboprop bomber with its near-jet class top speed of 920 km/h, combining swept wings with propeller propulsion, also remains in service today, being the fastest propeller-powered production aircraft. In Britain, two swept-wing bombers entered service, the Vickers Valiant (1955) and the Handley Page Victor (1958). By the early 1950s, nearly every new fighter had a swept wing. By the 1960s, most civilian jets also adopted swept wings. Most early transonic and supersonic designs such as the MiG-19 and F-100 used long, highly swept wings. Swept wings would reach Mach 2 on the BAC Lightning, and Republic F-105 Thunderchief, built to operate at low level and very high speed primarily for nuclear strike, but with a secondary air-to-air capability. By the late 1960s, the McDonnell F-4 Phantom II, was used in large numbers by air forces influenced by the United States. Variable geometry wings were employed on the American F-111, Grumman F-14 Tomcat and Soviet Mikoyan MiG-27, although the idea would be abandoned for the American SST design. After the 1970s, most newer generation fighters optimized for maneuvering air combat since the USAF F-15 and Soviet Mikoyan MiG-29 have employed relatively short-span fixed wings with relatively large wing area. See also Delta wing Theodore von Kármán, first to recognize the importance of the swept wing Trapezoidal wing Wing configuration References Citations Bibliography Anderson, John D. Jr. A History of Aerodynamics. New York: McGraw Hill, 1997. Andrews, C.F. and Eric B. Morgan. Vickers Aircraft since 1908. London: Putnam, 1988. . Barnes, C.H. Handley Page Aircraft since 1907. London: Putnam, 1976. . Belyakov, R. A. and Marmain, J. MiG: Fifty Years of Secret Aircraft Design. Shrewsbury, UK: Airlife Publishing, 1994. . Blackman, Tony. Vulcan Test Pilot: My Experiences in the Cockpit of a Cold War Icon. London: Grub Street, 2007. . Boyne, Walter J. Air Warfare: An International Encyclopedia, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO, 2002. . Brookes, Andrew. Victor Units of the Cold War. Osprey Publishing, 2011. . Buttler, Tony. "Avro Type 698 Vulcan (Database)." Aeroplane, Vol. 35, No. 4, Issue No. 408, April 2007. Cook, William H. The Road to the 707: The Inside Story of Designing the 707. Bellevue,