It looks like something a kid would dream up, but they really built them. They were too late to participate in WW2, but they proved to be quite effective in the Korean War. From Wikipedia:
"On 27 February 1947, P-82B 44-65168, named Betty Jo and
flown by Colonel Robert E. Thacker, made history when it flew nonstop
from Hawaii to New York without refueling, a distance of 5,051 mi
(8,129 km) in 14 hr 32 min. It averaged 347.5 miles per hour (559.2
km/h). [...] To this day, it remains the longest nonstop flight ever made by a
propeller-driven fighter, and the fastest such a distance has ever been
covered in a piston-engined aircraft"
P.S. Note that the record is for "a propeller-driven fighter", not a propeller-driven airplane.
I guess that's the closest the AF could come to the Truculent Turtle.
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