... never stopped to think about it until recently: but we had jet bombers way before we had jet airliners! Two reasons. One- because the Military and the Cold War was a higher priority and there was a lot of funding. Two- from the trial and error of military projects came more advanced, safer and economical designs for commercial civilian use. Send up the Air Force flyboys first before you start start zooming Grandmas through the Stratosphere at 650 mph!
all images- Right click- open in New Window= super colossal size!