Yes, big surprise. Merc should go for Verstappen now.
This reminds me of when Sam Hanks retired in Victory Lane after winning the 1957 Indianapolis 500.
Yes, I'd heard they were going to replace the 8 turbos on the B-52 with 4 fans. Hopefully they'll keep the B-1 since it's our only supersonic heavy bomber and the B-2 is still an asset so throw in the B-21 as a compliment. Hey, you can never have too many (4) thermonuclear bombers!
It has been claimed that Captain Thomas Mantell's P-51 exceeded mach 1 in his power on dive after encountering the UFO. Speculation I believe and, even if he did, he didn't pull out.