B-58 Hustler Supersonic Bomber Wins the Bendix Trophy (Restored Color -1962)
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- Опубліковано 7 вер 2024
- On March 5th, 1962, Capt Robert G Sauer & his crew in "Tall Man 55" took off from Carswell AFB, Fort Worth, Texas to break three transcontinental speed records in one day, over 4,500 miles in "Operation Heat Rise." The starting gate was Los Angeles, where the Hustler topped up her fuel. Along the way, she slowed briefly again for quick in air refuels, shown in detail, and reached New York City in just 2 hours & 56 seconds. Then, back to the West Coast, nonstop in 2hrs 15 minutes. The round trip was a total of 4 hours 41 minutes, including refueling, and all three times were transcontinental speed record. Get this film,. plus three more B-58 color features on our "Record Breaker: The B-58 Hustler Story Volume 1." Includes a complete B-58 Flight Manual! bit.ly/1gIy51f
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My favorite Air Force aircraft when I was a kid and remains so to this day.
Used to be in Funk&Wagnalls the A book loved it!! Fav plane!.
My bro was a B-58 engine mech stationed at LRAFB. I saw one up close...heard them take off. Loud loud loud! The most beautiful aircraft ever built. Looked fast sitting still.
I met Capt Sauer in 1982 and spent several hours in fascinating conversation.
This illustrates the "wall" in technology we've hit in aviation. As Doolittle pointed out, in 1962 the B58 flew just about exactly 1000mph faster than his only 31 years prior. Today, 56 years later...we're really not any faster especially now that the SR-71 has been retired. The mid 40's through the late 60's were the "heyday" of our growth spurt in aviation for sure.
yes...i think part of that tapering is the un-varying element: the fact that these airframes are designed to accomodate humans on board. that said, a number of breakthroughs have come since the b58. If i'm not mistaken, the xb-70 airframe was designed to take advantage of compression lift, such that its most efficient use of fuiel was at mach 3 /70,000 feet. The A-12/SR-71 programs solved the metal honeycomb laminate issues by figuring out a way to work with /machine titanium (& how to procure it too ;-), as well as introducing the stealth technology that continues to be improved upon.
Perhaps the rate has diminished, but you can't take maximum speed as the only yardstick for progress. Look at how fighters can maneuver now, and how efficient and powerful modern engines are, and nav systems. Self-flying planes, launch-and-leave missiles, etc. These are progress, even if we gave up on going faster. Some things just aren't technologically plausible, and you can't eliminate sonic booms no matter what you do.
It’s more physics and airframe strength from friction, heat, etc. with speeds greater than this. We hit a plateau with the materials we have available for airframe construction. Maybe they’ll look into alien materials in Area 51 for the next aircraft for speeds in excess of Mach 4-5 ;)
Kel Harper yeah, the F22 “Cobra Maneuver” an example of this, it’s almost “beyond earth”.
When this aircraft was being flown over Mississippi back in the early 60's the sonic boom sounded altogether different than this on the video! The sonic boom had a double BOOM/BOOM!! and actually shook the windows in this real small house I grew up in.
The legendary Col. Fitz Fulton, whom my late grandfather, Victor Horton, flew with many times on the YF-12 and SR-71 Blackbirds and the 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, always said that the B-58 was his favorite aircraft to fly.
liked the cop on the motorcycle near the 30 mph sign looking up at the sonic boom and shaking his head
That was hilarious !!
they had a lot of fun showing "ordinary Americans" all in awe of the plane. Golfers, retired people (in Arizona, of course), each area had it's spectators. Have to make a good promotional film after all.
Robert "Gray" Sowers lives near me. A very interesting guy to talk to. He went on to become the 1st instructor pilot for the SR-71 and after that flew Charlie Pride to his concerts for 15 years. He told me about the time he ejected out of an SR-71 and about the time he was involved in a mid air collision flying with Charlie Pride. What an amazing guy !!
+Lardawg67 The country western singer is a pilot.LOL Bud is his relative,he's looking for money ,he heard Robert was loaded LOL Just kidding.
Wasn't that around 1980, a cessna flew into Pride's Fairchild I believe and had to make an emergency landing on one engine I think.
This very B-58 59-2458 is now on display at the National Museum Of The United States Air Force.
I'm sure I've seen it.
I've been to the museum at least twice. The last time I went was in the late 1980s and I've been meaning to go back again since it's changed so much. I basically knew NOTHING about the planes there and was fascinated by their designs. Now, that I know THE HISTORY of a bunch of these planes, a visit would be more meaningful. It's under 2 hours drive from where I live but that's still a HUGE commitment to driving for me and I honestly don't like driving that much!
The B-58 WAS a beautiful-looking plane but in practice not very practical or particularly useful for anything beyond setting speed records. That is a harsh assessment but the plane didn't stay in service past 1970. It was overtaken by economics and practical considerations.
It's funny how the B-52 has pretty much been the "perfect strategic bomber" since the late 1950s. They just can't replace the plane because everything that's come after it has been impractical and technically difficult to support (XB-70, B-58) or way too expensive (EVERYTHING after the B-52)!
Kevin Meno I didn’t know that.
Growing up in the 1960's - I remember sonic booms were a common occurrence.
I haven't heard one in over 50 years!
I last heard one when one of the last shuttle flights landed at Kennedy space center, this was around 2009 or so. You could always tell a shuttle landing, they had a unique double sonic boom. It was two booms within about a second and a half.
gary6449 &@@Elthenar - In October 2014 I was at work, outside, near Roswell, New Mexico when I heard a sonic boom - which I also remembered from the 1960's. We did not know until some hours later that the boom was caused by Alan Eustace breaking the sound barrier in free fall.
I remember when I was very young I heard a sonic boom, scared me so I ran back into the house. Miss the good 'ol days
@Randy Wiesendanger hahaha! So true!
And it was a "boom" rattling windows, not an explosion like in this video.
Such a great plane! Robert Sowers accomplished a lot in his career!
I remember those sonic booms. They were real window shakers.
My Father was a founding member of “The Strategic Air Command” (SAC). He was a Flight Engineer, Navigator and Camera Operator on a variety of Bombers doubling as reconnaissance aircraft. These included B-25s in the South Atlantic hunting and sinking Nazi U-Boats and their resupply and refueling ships (Milk-Cows). He also flew the later model B-25s photographing targets in North Africa and Italy. He was a Flight Engineer on later models B-17s with the 8th Air Force, photographing targets in Germany and France. He was injured in a taxi accident ( pilot ran of the tarmac) and a toolbox, that wasn’t stowed properly, injured his back. It was serious enough to send him back to the States. Col. Tibet’s chose him as member of the 509th Composite Bomb Wing (Silver-Plate). A he found himself (with my Mother)in Wendover, Utah. He was training for the dropping of the Atomic Bomb with B-29s (He didn’t know it yet). After WW II ended, He worked for Douglas MacArthur during the occupation of Japan. He continued to fly B-29s and B-50s in The Korean War ( also doing recon). He came back to the US and in 1948 started flying the Massive B-36 (Featherweights) again doing Recon.work. This was when SAC was born and so was I. We were all over California and eventually he ended up in B-47s as a navigator / camera operator doing what else . . . reconnaissance behind the border in The Soviet Union. The point of this lengthy piece of writing is . . . He had just started flying as a navigator on the B-58 when his back started acting up and his killed his flying days. Dad loved the B-58 and I loved living in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Dad had 20 (he had just turned 40) years in and planned on 30, but if he couldn’t fly, he figured . . . why stay in the Air Force? I wish we could have stayed in SAC. Dad very well could have ended up flying The SR-71. Dad was what they called a (Sharp Tool). With his background in Recon it was the next logical step. Living in the Air Force was an adventure and God knows where we would have ended up. I got to tell you the B-58 was an unbelievable aircraft. You should very well ask why didn’t I end up in the Air Force ? The sad truth . . . In 1966 when I graduated from High School I was 6’6”. Two inches too tall to fly. No one was more disappointed than I.
I miss them so much its been 4 years since I've seen my grandfather
Fly coast to coast and back in half a day. Sign me up. Love the g-forces.
I was 8 yrs. old and living under the glide path of Carswell. Our windows got rattled on a daily basis, back then. I used to have a revel model of the B-58. Sooo cool. Cockpit hinged open. Landing gear were glued in place. Spent many a 'mile' flying it thru the house.
According to Wiki, the B-58 project (1962) was the last one to win a Bendix Trophy for setting a speed record milestone.
They discontinued the award for speed achievement since space developments overtook the public interest for aeronautical records. There used to be a few awards given out for speed records until the early 1960s when air racing pretty much died out as a big spectator sport in the US. The Bendix Trophy and Thompson Trophy were the two big annual awards for speed records.
They still give out the Collier Trophy but that's for aeronautical achievement and advancing technology... Lockheed has won that award quite a few times! Chuck Yeager also got the Collier Trophy for his supersonic flight in the X-1.
I bet these kind of speed record races would be very popular today, but the pickle puffers would protest that this type of contest takes balls and is discriminatory against their neutered fluffy selves.
It's not much of a spectator sport if the plane is gone over the horizon in a couple of seconds. lol
I'm writing very late since this lovely video was displayed on UA-cam with the formidable B-58 beating a new speed record! Despite displaying a bit of propaganda (why not?) you could feel the pride of the Americans for the achievement of the airforce and their efforts! It was truly the heyday of America and I miss very much that period....
Oh Man, the 60's!!!
There was some of the B-58's stationed at Little Rock AFB before the C-130's came here. They was nice aircraft and was noisy until they planted trees on the base between the flight line and the rest of the base to buffer the noise level and those trees are still there now.
My Uncle LTC Neil Gagen was a USAF navigator during this time. He flew in F 89's and F 101's and spoke highly of this period in the Air Force. He said the combined might of Western military forces both nuclear and conventional would have annihilated the USSR. His entire attitude changed however when he flew on RC 121's out of Thailand during the Vietnam war.
Beautiful aircraft. Looks like it’s doing Mach 2 on the ground.
Peter Griffin I was surprised that the B-47 did fly faster than sound, talk about an airplane that looked like it was doing 750 mph on the ground.
what a classic aircraft
I want that model of the B-58.. I need that in my life
Convair B58 HUSTLER ... man, that's cool
What a cool looking aircraft pretty respectable speed even for today
Neat to see Gen. Doolittle. Met with his Raider copilot Dick Cole twice and hopefully meet him again this weekend.
My father worked for Sperry and their ecm countermeasures and
Navigation system were aboard. Problem was Convair didn't have
scores of lobbyists with bulging wallets to "influence" capitol
Hill.....but with proper further systems refinement the B-58 would have
Been a Major long term benefit to this country.
Hey, remember when the new 1958 Buicks were marketed in
their major print ads as the new B-58 Buicks with a hustler
Flying overhead......
...imagine a continuous sonic boom......."spoilers" would not permit that these days.......SO many "NOs" said these days.....
Really interesting movie!! Thanks for sharing!
Beautiful and deadly...
John t Walton is my great grandfather he died last year:(
The French build up their powerful Mirage IV supersonic bomber just a little bit later. It was ready to use at 1964 in meanings to use AN-11 free fall nuclear bombs.
B58 was a great influence on the Concorde designers (both M2 with delta wings)
More like both the B-58 and the Concorde used delta wings for the same reason. The Concorde has very little in common with the B-58 other than the general wing shape and layout. The B-58 was not the first tailless-delta plane, there were numerous others, and they were all designed for high speed. Why should the B-58 be somehow an especial "influence" on the Concorde over the other jets? The Mirage III and F-106 were also Mach 2+ tailless deltas.
My Dad was a Air force mechanic and worked on these.
6:16 I found this way funnier than it was probably intended
They really pushed the idea that the sonic boom was a feature to be glad about. As I recall it didn’t get much traction.
That probably was because of the broken windows the "boom" would cause.
the b58 could carry over 100,000lb of JP4 fuel and consume it all in less than 2 hours. it cannot take off fully fuelled and has to refuel from a tanker to take on its maximum fuel load. also the radar system, being a tube based analogue type weighed 1200lbs. also if any part of the skin of the b58 was damaged, the whole aircraft had to be mounted in a precision jig to replace the damaged panel, as the fibreglass composite sandwich panels the b58's skin was made up of cannot be bent or deformed as the resin is oven cured and a cured panel cannot be bent or it will crack or delaminate and fail. the aircraft was pretty much totally obsolete when the last one rolled out of the factory in 1962. the low speed handling was so bad if you got in a spin at less than about 20k ft you were pretty much stuffed as recovery was impossible. also the craft would pitch up, flat stall and pancake into the ground if large amounts of power were not applied to check the rate of descent at low speeds.
Interesting
+insanitybiker Yeah, but it's dead sexy.
Dead. Sexy.
+insanitybiker It was and is one of the most beautiful birds ever to fly. I grew up near Bunker Hill AFB and got to hear the sound barrier breaks many times.It was usually at 8:00 PM.
+John Lindsey Cool...I grew up in Ft. Worth, just south of Carswell AFB...Use to hear and see these awesome planes every day when I was a kid. They'd rattle the windows and had a fantastic (and very distinctive) whoosh sound.
+Paul Dirac I saw two up close and almost feet down in worship.(hyperbole intended ). One at the former Bunker Hill and one at Dayton Air Museum.
Great plane
Awesome 👍
Nice to see Jimmy Dolittle at the end. This video is kind of funny..watch those golf putzers looking up... Geeeez Cheese .
Wahhh.. Every now and then I hear a sonic boom out in the Atlantic or near Key West Florida
Thanks for posting.
Any other country in the world flying a platform like the buff b-52 what X or z model now ? Aircraft like this helped pave the way for the buff aardvark b-1 and others
B-58 Hustler looks fast just sitting on the ground.
This was the bomber in the movie Fail Safe. It was called the Vindicator in the movie.
a real sonic boom had a much deeper, base tone, and was usually a double boom, one maybe a tenth of a second after the other - and far louder than conveyed in films or such. On my family's farm, early 60s, sometimes got two or three a day from nearby AF bases. Finally got some peace and quiet when I joined the army.
Thanks, I was going to ask.
The real untouchables!
Thank you for download. I love planes. 👿
I'm sure that most of this footage is not actually shot during the record attempt, but is basically a representative film made after the fact, but even so, I didn't think the B-58 could travel Mach 2 with the belly pod attached. I thought that was only after the pod was dropped, in the dash out from the target. I thought "okay, obviously they are just using the pod to extend range, and accepting the lower top speed", but then he said "Mach 2". So either I am wrong or film is wrong in showing the plane carrying the pod.
I wonder how the Sageburner F-4 measures up
When the SR-71 did the speed run very few complaints dew to sonic booms but now it would cost a fortune
Because people live to whine these days, and the biggest motivation they have is to get whatever free money they can out of the government. If they can't get free money, they are content to be annoying and make things difficult.
How come the roar of the B58 precedes its sonic boom ? Did the film makers not graduate from school ? [Aussie in BC]
Same reason everything blows up in a Michael bay movie it's more entertaining that way .
Sweet!. I was 2.
She is a fast machine...
This one really brought back a lot of memories of a great plane. Was a sad day when the B-58 was "put out to pasture" in the "Boneyard". My best guess is this plane, if equipped with up to date modern avionics and engines, would still stand pretty tall against current era aircraft.
Yup, comparable with the TSR 2, and the Avro Arrow.
Superior airframes.
The Tu-22m is a better design though
IDIOTS! THE B-58 SHOULD BE IN SERVICE LIKE THE B-52. WASTE OF RESOURCES AND ASSETS.
the B-58 was a baaaaaaaaaad motorscooter !
15:00 - B-58 AND Golf?? OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you get to talk to Robert Gray Sowers please ask him if he knew the Sowers that lived off of Sowers road in Linwood, NC. I think my Uncle, Foy Sowers, went to school with him. Others he may know is George "Cap" Sowers, "Buck" Sowers, "Coon" or "Slick" Sowers and Nick "Wormy" Sowers. Please let me know if he does!
Sowers, Sowers, Sowers, Sowers?
Sowers Sowers?
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Do they have any of these birds on display?
This is also when they found out that as a strategic bomber, it was worthless because it didn't have the range in reality.
Mordalo very true because the consumption of was truly staggering but after all even nowaday jet fighters are no joke either and it is still the main problem for the pilots to contend with when flying...
Fuel consumption wasn’t really a problem considering aerial refueling was factored into the equation. KC-135s could refuel these before they might have to enter Soviet territory for instance.
Yeah. And the Russians answered with their Tu-22. M3 version still in use. B-58 was in use, at when? (answer: in 1970)
The Concord could cross the entire Atlantic at Mach 2
Do they still give the Bendix Trophy out?
jason Swift-No
It’s been a long time since anyone has challenged for it. Still available.
@@jeffreyaustin603 so the Bendix Trophy is awarded for speed? Thank you for the information, very interesting I might add.
No GPS here
Nope. They used things called "maps".
Sounds like an old Yogi Bear cartoon
Was the B-58 capable of a half cuban eight like this same era 4 engine delta bomber.
ua-cam.com/video/yG_wAdMBMB4/v-deo.html.
What a strange accent of the people of the age.
It was typical for television and radio announcers and actors. Not everyone spoke that way...although they did have different regional dialects, far more than we do now. Television and mass communication are erasing all of our regional vocal characteristics, and making us all sound like Californians instead. Pisses me off.
Is Robert Sowers still living? I am a relative of his; Bud Sowers
+Bud Sowers "Gray" Sowers is my good friend, seasonal neighbor & golfing buddy in AZ. I think his piloting days are past but he's very active and an important part of our community.
Great to hear Mike. I'm sure he knows my Father and his brothers (they are from the same area in North Carolina). When I was 12 Gray won the Bendix trophy and another award in the B-58 and I had every article written about him. Also glad to hear he is a fellow Golfer!! I myself ended up flying Army Helicopters (Cobras and Apaches) and Robert Gray was my inspiration.....my aircraft being a little slower!!! Tell him a relative thinks of him often and I'm glad he is doing well.
+Bud Sowers..... Gray would like to visit with you but we're both hesitant to publish our personal contact info in this public venue so I'm not sure how to arrange that. Ideas?
Not sure either Mike but we will find a way.
My grandfather was Robert MacDonald the navigator he was a great man I wish I had the chance to know him better he passed away when I was very young I remember my dad showing me the bendix throphy when I was little and telling me the story thank you for posting this video
No. Restored COLOUR.
If it was a British Vickers Valiant, it would be “Colour.” It’s an American Convair B-58 Hustler. 😉
No. COLOUR is English. Anything else is called a spelling mistake.@@ZenosWarbirds
How did they assume theres a "sonic boom every mile.." I'm calling BS
There is ALWAYS a sonic boom following any aircraft exceeding the speed of sound-it is a continuous boom following the aircraft
stu olson, the guy you responded to has selective listening. What the narrator said at 4:43 was exactly what you said. I know the B-58 was in a "launch test" program that didn't go so well (or else they would have taken it further,) but the kid in me still thinks it would've been a great platform, but I'm also more of a realist these days.