Oh yes....the AF was adventurous and full of grits back in the post war years (and for some efforts, a couple of decades afterwards). They’d just won a war, feeling their oats, moved into the jet age - made tremendous advances in altitude, speed, endurance, etc (expanding the flight envelope). America was rich, the superpower with money to burn.
Then, science began to give way to politics - jobs. B-2 was overbloated because of California jobs and jobs in key districts, Osprey, C-17, KC-135 replacement, et al were more politics than procurement.