When it lifted off the runway at Edwards Air Force Base on May 22, 2002, Boeing's X-45A unmanned combat air vehicle became the first dedicated robotic fighter to begin flight testing. The first flight lasted only 14 minutes, but subsequent testing later saw the airplane, and its twin, conduct substantially longer missions, proving their ability to fly in formation, drop warheads on simulated missile sites, and attack newly identified targets completely autonomously.

For 65 years, the Mojave Desert has spawned the fastest, highest-flying and most agile airplanes in the world. This vast expanse of scrub and Joshua tree forests encompasses the U.S. Air Force's deadly-secret Area 51 in Nevada, Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works in Palmdale, California, and, at Mojave airfield itself, Burt Rutan's sci-fi enclave, Scaled Composites.