"Cub Driver" wrote in message
...

The discussion I believe was about the B-36. It flew above the
absolute ceiling of contemporary MiG fighters. The British begged for
a chance to challenge the 36, but the USAF wisely ignored them. No
American fighter of the time could get up there, and no Russian
either.

In tests over Florida, in the rare cases where an interceptor could
match the 36's altitude, all the bomber had to do was execute a slow
turn. When the fighter matched it, it fell away. And nobody knows if
the 36 was flying at its absolute ceiling in those tests; evidently it
could go much higher.

While the B-36 was obsolete within a few years, it did have the altitude
capabilities you mention. Whats more, the MiG-15 could not reach those
altitudes; even if they could their oxygen systems were so bad their pilots
would be passing out long before they could climb high enough to intercept.

OTOH, read Chcuk Yeagers auto-biography where he speaks of intercepting the
B-36 and how they tried to stack the tests in favor of the '36.