A Bell idea from ca. 1960 for one of their D-190 VTOL tilt-duct vehicle designs. The D-190 was sort of a generic concept, with multiple variants designed, but all basically to the same general configuration… and generally meant to dock in flight with a larger aircraft. Typically the D-190 would be transported to the vicinity of Very Bad Things, where it would be used as a rescue craft. The mothership would continue to orbit while the D-190 landed, collected people, then flew back to the mothership for docking and the flight back home. In this particular design, the D-190 would be used to collect Very Important People (military and political leaders) and fly them up to an airborne command post in the event of a nuclear war. This would be a quicker way of getting the President, say, up in the air than the usual approach of coppering him to the nearest big airport, where the Flying White House would be waiting. In this case, if the fit hit the shan, the command post could take off immediately, and the D-190 would replace the choppr… it’d pick him up momentarily and transport him directly to the command post. The political rally or hospital opening ceremony that the President was just moments early speaking at could now be safely nuked out of existence.
Shown in the artwork is a KC-135/707 derived command post (because the 747/E-4 was years away from even being designed).
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The Triton, first sub to circumnavigate the globe submerged, was also to have had a similar second life after being a radar picket. Also kiboshed.