The Year is 1955
It's a crisp, cold winter's day. A thin layer of frost covers the silent streets of Europe. A few people go about their business, huddling against the cold. They keep their eyes to the ground, making sure not to lose their footing.
Had they looked to the stars above, they might have seen it. One of the stars is not like the others, but moves slowly across the firmanent. Not a shooting star, granting wishes to delighted children, but a far more serious portent.
This is the Jet Cruiser, a terrifying weapon that even now finds roots in the brains of those engineers to eager to forget the lessons of war.
Back in Europe, the alarms are now ringing in local airbases. The Jet Cruiser has bypassed the continental chain of radar beacons protecting Europe, but as descends towards the continent, other radars pick up the intruders. Huried messages are sent towards local airbases, and pilots rush towards their planes. No matter how fast, no matter how capable, they are already too late. The Jet cruiser is 15 000 meters up while their planes are on the ground. And even if they had the time to get in the air, their engines could not run at this altitude.
The Jet Cruiser is the unstoppable bomber. Twin rocket jet engines carry it on a ballistic trajectory towards it's destination, far further than any rocket could reach.
Comfortable in their isolated cockpit, the pilots calmly open the letters they have been provided with. Within, they find final instructions, and the name of the city whose memorial will grace tomorrow's headlines. Calmly, they adjust their instruments. Tele-operated ailerons allow the pilots easy control even at speeds far beyond the speed of sound, and the jet cruiser turns inexorably towards it's destination. At a height of 10 000 meters, the crew is ready for their bombing run. They make the final adjustements, feeding wind, speed and distance into their automatic bomb sight, and prepare to open the bomb bay.
The Jet Cruiser can strike at any time. It's crew is not stopped by weather or wind.
The air raid sirens are bellowing now, the streets filled with people running towards shelter. High above the crowds, a metal shell detaches from the cruiser and starts it's descends. Not 15 minutes after the weapon has been detected, an atomic plume rises above the city. Most shelters are still open, and the fire washes inside. Only a small fraction of people survive, those who were closed their shelters in time, knowing that in doing so they doomed hundreds, and those who by luck or happenstance managed to find a private shelter that was isolated and sturdy enough to survive the blast.
Sheltering from the Jet Cruiser is impossible. It will strike before you are ready.
Mission accomplished, the jet cruiser turns for home. It's engines ignite, and it climbs away, far faster than any interceptor could hope to match. The mission is complete .
Below, dawn breaks above a burning city. Tomorrow night, a new reign of darkness will start across the continent, but it will not matter. Kept save within it's nose, the jet cruiser has a radar set, and with an experienced operator in the crew the vehicle can find any target anywhere on Earth.
The reach of the Jet Cruiser is total.
Bring an end to the terror weapons before they exist.
Support the SDL in it's total ban on spaceplane development.
Note : Have some in-universe propaganda as to why everyone is so happy on banning spaceplanes.
