Winds of War: How a Secret Weapons Program Accidentally Discovered the Jet Stream

Today, the jet stream is a basic fact of global travel and meteorology. We rely on these massive, high-altitude rivers of air to shorten commercial flight times and predict winter storms. Yet, less than a century ago, the existence of these 200-mph winds was entirely unknown to Western science.

The discovery of the jet stream was not made by peaceful academics observing clouds, but forged in the desperate final years of global conflict. It required high-altitude bomber missions encountering ...