I worked on drawings of the B-58 Hustler at Raytheon in 1956-58 before it went into production. The plane was way ahead of its time and started a new trend in aerodynamics.
You have to wonder why 187 people gave a thumbs down to this film. The B-58 was an exceptional leap forward in aircraft design, that we see even today.
There's no question in my mind about the negative ratings! The piano was louder than the voice, and the voice was a soft-spoken Brit accent. The narration was as useless as tits on a bull. I stopped watching it because of the piss-poor audio.
@@donaldkgarman296 For radar to detect an object at 300 miles, it must be located very high up. Radar that has the ability to look over the horizon is a relatively recent invention.
Did you notice the protests in the 1950s and 1960s that were anti A-Bomb? Yes, we made and still make some great airplanes. Its World War III and the end of life on earth that bothers some people. We thought the Russians were as strong and dangerous as we were. Looking at their incompetence in Ukraine today you wonder were they always this bad.
Worked on them in 1967 at Bunker Hill AFB Indiana. They were a maintenance night mare. Fly for 4 hours and work on them for 4 days. Fast as hell! Was on tail #080 now in Tuscon Arizona display aircraft.
I Newton Why shouldn't we look up the maintenance rate for modern fighters? I do know that the F-16, F-15, F-18, pretty much all modern western fighters have much lower maintenance requirements than Century series fighters or the B-58.
Go ahead! I went from Phantoms to F-16s as a maintainer (retired in 2007) and they are a breeze to keep in the air.. We EASILY got close to 100-percent FMC rates with no stat chasing during Desert Shield/Storm.
Ask any experienced maintainer who worked a variety. Part of the reason Phantom and predecessors went away is the enormous maintenance burden. I worked Phantoms before I worked F-16 A/B/C/D and F-16s are no problem to keep flying. Working them is skate compared to the old birds. The F-15 maintainers I worked with said similarly, and nobody knows more about that subject than the people who took 'em apart and put 'em together in Phase Dock and the flightline.
In 1960 or 1961 I witnessed a B-58 make a high speed bomb run on Amarillo Texas. The B-58 made a low pass at Amarillo from the south, pulled up over vertical and rolled back level heading south. I just happened to look up as the turn to vertical and escape run occurred. The B-58 was approximately 10 miles south of Amarillo and I got an excellent view up the four giant engines as they provided maximum power in the pull away. I later read of the bomb toss maneuver of the B-58 and I'll never forget the speed, sound and visual sensory information - just by chance.
That maneuver would, in actual combat, have been carried out with 25 megaton yield bombs. The B-58 would not have had to been very accurate with those type of "firecrackers"!!!
Hi John. The nuclear delivery type which you are describing, going vertical and then going reverse course of your run in course heading was called a "Over-the--Shoulder" delivery. It was not a "toss," as in a the toss nuke delivery you pull 4 G's in 2 seconds, hold, and your timers, which you preset, released the nuke. You never go straight vertical in a "toss." I flew F-4's and was fully qualified in all the nuke delivery profiles and taught them for many years during the Cold War. I read some comments saying it wasn't an accurate delivery method and this is totally false. If you are doing it visually it is very accurate (versus using the 5nm radar bomb strobe), as you would pull vertical directly over your target, release the nuke (a B-53 or B-61 type in the B-58 in the 60's), and then pull back upside down to maintain positive G's while reversing course and then when level roll 180 "upright" and get out of Dodge ASAP!! I had a CNWDI (critical nuclear weapons design information) clearance, taught this stuff, and i also "sat" active Victor Alert (Nuclear Strike) in Germany for way to many years... Cheers!
@@scottrichardson8158 NOPE. The MK-41, a 25 MegaTon nuke (largest US nuke ever made) was never designed to be carried on the B-58. The B-58 only carried the B-53 and 61 series nukes. Cheers!
I was a jet engine mechanic on the B-47 at Little Rock AFB when they retired and we moved the 43rd bomb wing from Carswell to Little Rock in 1964 I think it was. Very complex and I loved it. Because I had that SAC supersonic experience I was selected for the SR-71 program. I showed up at Beale AFB before the gate guards even knew about the 4200 SRW.
@@bobsherrill2672 Hi Bob. I flew F-4s and F-16s and unfortunately, what you said about not knowing any pilots is true, but NOT, however, the part about be your being "a lowly engine mechanic." Our aircraft would have never got off the ground if not for your hard work (and that of countless others), so please, don't you ever forget that! When a sole pilot or multi-member aircrew steps to their aircraft in the "bread van" as we used to call it, it is after many hours of pre-mission study followed by a formal flight briefing, all behind closed doors and rarely, if ever, experienced by anyone but aircrew members. Like you, we did our work and you did yours. Unfortunately, the only other people that we typically got to interact with on a personal basis on the flightline were the aircraft Crew Chief, Security personnel, and after flying the Maintenance debrief folks. As you know, if I ever encountered an engine issue during start or taxi I would then need to step to the back up aircraft as engines issues are just not something you fly with and items that are worked on by specialists such as yourself. I, for one, appreciate your hard work and thank you for getting me back home safely thousands of times! Cheers!
It was actually a high-altitude bomber originally. As the Soviet SAM's got better, they were forced into a low-altitude mission, which shortened their range. The B-58 was a strategic asset designed to carry gravity-bomb nuclear arms. They were retired after approximately nine years of service, replaced by the F-111 Aardvarks.
@@turkey0165 First ive heard of this and curious to know what the decoy missiles were and where they were carried on the aircraft? The only 1960's Soviet surface to air (sam) missile system that im aware of is the SA-2 with the Fan Song radar and Guideline missile, which essentially had zero capability below 1000 feet.
As a kid one of the early models I put together was the B-58. I always thought it was a cool plane with the delta wings. The fifties was a golden era of jet aircraft.
I love how these old films bring out the people who worked, flew and lived this stuff. So many very interesting comments and exceedingly important to the history of this era and aviation. Love reading them all.
I feel the same way. Reading their comments almost make it palpable, you can start to see with your mind's eye what it was like to be there 50 years ago or more.
My Grandfather was a "BigWig" @Convair(then GD) during the 50's/60's. I have some of his paperwork along with rough draft checklists/flight manuals for the Hustler. My father remembers well the sound of them departing over Camp Bowie. Along with the thunderous B-36's, Carswell was quite the beehive back "in the day". I have many of his photos of early testing also. Other than the SR-71...I think it's the "fastest" looking plane ever made. Mach 2 sitting on the stand!
As a kid in Dallas in 1964, could hear and feel the frightening sonic booms of the B-58 Hustler from Air Force Plant 1 at Carswell Air Force Base... As an aerospace engineer now, it's the coolest 3 cockpit nuclear bomber ever.
My dad was Fire and Rescue at Convair , Convair Vultee , then GD from 1948 to 1976 when he retired. I have some cool memorabilia from the B-36 and F-111 programs.
I experienced one of these low level attack flights back in the 50's on a bombing range in western South Dakota. It came without warning and passed directly overhead with a very loud crash. We thought it had dropped a bomb on us! Then it executed a toss bomb maneuver and went back the way it had come.
That must've been something else to see, supersonic aircraft catapulting bombs. I wonder if that maneuvers ever been filmed because I've read about it, but I've never seen it done.
I experienced a low level bomb run in my living room at twilight. It was a B1 attacking a tank farm to my west. The drive in movie screen between us caused a disagreement between the three computers. This provoked a sub routine that pitched the nose up and lit the afterburners. I got outside to see the third & fourth burner light and then go out. Drive In movie screens, the best defense against the B1.
I attended a mechanics school held on the old James Connally AFB outside of Waco, Texas in the summer of 1969. General Dynamics was using the base to modify the engines on the B-58. Whenever they would test fly the plane, our instructor would allow us to watch. We were no more than a half a mile from the runway. The pilots would buzz the field at about 200 ft. and what must have been full throttle. I have never seen anything like it! Damn thing would be just a trail of smoke and could not be heard until it was already passed our view point, but then the sonic boom would almost bowl us over. I will never forget it.
I did all of my flight training at Connally in 1977 -1979 to get my CFI. It still called Connally, but later changed to TSTI, then to TSTC: Texas State Technical Institute (College)
I built a beautiful B-58 Hustler Supersonic plastic model. I watched and enjoyed a movie of the B -58, where the crew got mixed up orders to nuclear bomb Russia. The US military, the US government and the wives of the crew, through the government patching them through to the crew, trying to get the crew to abort the start of world war III. The crew of the b-58 thought that it was the enemy trying to call off the US military strike on the Soviet Union. Well, it didn't work and the b-58 crew realize that there would be nothing left on Earth pertaining to a runway to land on so they decided to pull straight up under full power after they dropped the nuke on Russia. Nice entertaining movie. I heard that there was a Soviet nuclear sub sitting in the water waiting for orders to launch their nukes. And like I said, I heard that day actually got their orders mixed up and almost launched world war III.
@@dougfisher9910 The movie was called" Fail-Safe" and the error was a computer sent the GO code to bombers to attack Russia. It was very realistic and warning that humans relieve too much on computers and flight crew behavior like machines. ua-cam.com/video/oicYUhgff7Q/v-deo.html. During the Cold War, Soviet Air Defense detected a missile launch from the USA, but a only Soviet officer in the control room stopped their counterattack. It turn out it was a large group of birds
My grandfather's brother flew them in the earlier 60's. They nicknamed it the widowmaker. He crashed after the aircraft stalled out. His stalled out after takeoff 3 miles off Grissom AFB in november 1963. The plane was refuled improperly. He could of ejected but wanted to save the other 2 guys in the plane.
In '67, Dad up 2 1/2 days building 2 - 300 HP elec motors for main lift of Forrestal afire off Vietnam as couldn't get at fires. Dad & his Repair Order man impressed, went w/motors to Mich Bomber Base, & only thing that could rocket both motors & passengers was B-58 after 2 consecutive Chrome Dome missions. COL whipped, taught Dad refueling from Tanker, then slept all the way to off Vietnam. COL landed & motors stuffed in 2 - brand new Navy cargo prop jobs for barrier crashes. Dad's Pilot done good, but RO Man's Pilot swerved to right too late paying ultimate price with motor cruising straight thru cockpit. RO man butched up too, so Dad took over motor installation & Sailors more than ready to help with Buddies roasting! When B-58 COL got back to base, he picked mail from slot, & his GEN had sent him mandatory call sign change to Sleeping Beauty, along with SR-71 photos of him sleepin' in the cockpit at still classified flat out speed. They had been sent out as uninformed radar operator had ID'd bullet on his screen, and the SR-71 had hard time catchin' up to check!! That B-58 had saved lives of shtload of Sailors, and Dad's RO Man repaired at Walter Reed & back to work in couple months!! War was hell in more than few ways!!
To think they did this all with analog controls is amazing. I entered the Navy as an AT in the 80s, and they still had some gear from the 50s. It was amazing what those guys did with analog designs back then.
Actually my father worked for the company that produced the power supply for the B-58 and he was treated to a trip to Edwards Air Force Base to see them flying. I saw my first one in real life at an air show in Maryland back in the 60's, and remember the sonic boom the day it raced across the US to break that speed record. What a cool machine for its day. They were also the Vindicator bombers in the movie Failsafe.
When I was very young, I had a small moulded plastic toy of a B-58, and I always thought it was amazing too. But I wondered where it belonged in the history of military aircraft. There were so many interesting planes designed in the 1950's, that ended up being mothballed without ever being used much.
Bill Kerr Mssion: destroy Moscow, and be gone before the echo fades. Bonus: Look good doing it. Hard to believe they built planes like this when cars still had fins...
Fortunate to live in Ft. Worth when the B58 was being test flown. One of our neighbors was a civilian test pilot with it, and he promised us a sonic boom. And right on schedule he flew over the neighborhood and it was a beautiful plane...and memorable boom. Forget his first name, last name was Guthrie.
So interesting to read everybodys' posts about building kits of these planes and which ones were their favorites. In the 60's my folks had a hobby shop near the Camp Bowie circle and we had a lot of those plastic kits. To this day I can recognize and name planes from WWI through the 60's because I had to straighten up the stock. There were folks who were into the plastic kits, some of them adults who were very into carefully painting them accurately. Their work was impressive and we displayed them in our front window. Then there were the people who did flying models: RC, control line and even free flight. They flew RC out at Bendbrook lake every weekend. To me it seemed like there was a real airplane culture, not just because my folks had the shop, but all the kids at Ridgley West school were at least very aware of the planes from the base because they flew over us at low altitude all the time. And it didn't seem odd at the time, but the local radio stations reported on things related to the planes at the base. Does anybody remember a wierd incident in '65 when supposedly a flap fell off one of the B-52's and it circled for hours to burn off the fuel before they tried to land it? That was the story I remember from that day. One of the kids came to school with a small, twisted piece of primer grey metal and claimed that the flap landed on a street in his neighborhood and shattered on impact. The kid said people went out and looked at it before the Airforce got there, and that's when he picked up his little piece of it. We knew at school when it was coming in to land because they were tracking it on the radio . I'm a little skeptical of my memory about this because I was a kid at the time and it was so long ago, but my memory is that when it came over we all went to the windows of our class to look and, sure enough, it was missing a flap. It landed safely. It was a fun time that left me with an enduring love of airplanes and a bad case of tinnitis.🤣
One thing that was not understood until Operation Desert Storm in 1991 was that in daytime low-altitude deep strike missions over desert terrain, the heat distortion from the desert floor makes an approaching aircraft very easy to spot for enemy forces on the ground. The approaching aircraft appears as a large vertical stripe approaching in the distance, which makes it quite easy to shoot at. At least one RAF Tornado was shot down and its pilot captured because of this. The RAF abandoned their low-altitude tactic and switched to striking from high altitude because of this vulnerability.
Wow that’s interesting I had no idea about that! Thnx for comment. The Operations Room channel has an amazing video on the desert storm air war with really great graphics but he never included that detail
I was on a B-52 during Desert Storm. The early few weeks we did operate at low level, as we were heavily trained to do against the USSR. We quickly abandoned that tactic as it was clear that the sky was THICK with AAA fire. It was likely only a matter of time before one of us got shot to pieces. The main reason for low level flight was to evade SAMs and radar, but we quickly had near complete suppression of Iraqi SAMs and their radars so it was better to go high to evade 90% of the AAA.
My Dad was an Aeronautical Engineer, working for the AF. They had tail section failure at low level, until the rear fuselage was re-enforced. He used to examine crash sites also.
@@amekleihm No , Duh , it's a man, Camping buddy is a joker, LP Mitchell, tell father in law , thank you for your service ! People don't realize just how dangerous this kind of flight is. Big slow birds at low altitudes, no room for error at .92 Mach { 700 MPH ! }, sneeze and your dead { ha !! }
Shaped like the F-106, the B-58 was such a great airframe. John Denver's dad piloted one of these. Low-level, high speed bombing runs were taken over by the FB-111.
FB-111 was a Strategic, nuclear-strike asset replacement for the B-58. The Tactical strike mission was NOT assigned to the FB, but to F-4s, A-7s, and "standard" F-111s, along with F-105s decertified for nuclear delivery (much to the pilots' relief).
Great terrane views! Starting at 8:55 you get the itemized feature list reminiscent of an old automobile add. Only thing missing is: "The B-58 Hustler has it all, does it all. Visit your neighborhood Convair showroom today and put yourself in the pilot's seat!"
My uncle was an electronics technician for GD in Ft. Worth. He arranged for me to visit the plant, and I got to sit in the cockpit of a B-58. A very cool thing for a 9 year old.
What a piece of kit. From Kitty Hawk to this in just over 50 years. I love the 600kt @ 550ft under the VFR part. What an exciting plane. I love this and the English Electric Lightning (as well as the B-52 and F-14 of course).
I remember building a model of the B58. It looked so cool. John Denver’s dad set a world speed record in the B58. Bottom line is “It’s all fun and games until you get a bird strike”😜
bayman50cal I think this was a B-58 fitted with a modified mission pod. The forward end of the pod contained a forward-looking camera. Note that the view is not looking down the nose in many cases. Also cameras were rigged in the pod looking to starboard and to port of the flight path.The cockpit views are the usual recording cameras. After a simulated pod release, the B-58 would have climbed to an altitude to increase range by reducing specific fuel consumption. Range after release would have been minimal at best. In an all-out war, the crew could not have expected to return to CONUS. A safe landing was probably planned for in Turkey or maybe North Africa. Forward-deployed KC-135 Tankers from NATO bases might have been able to extend that range, but internal fuel capacity (I.e., without a pod) was limited.
When I was a kid there was this pack of small molded plastic planes you could buy at what we would now call a dollar store. You always wanted to get the bag with the most B-58's in it. It was the coolest looking aircraft of the bunch.
These had incredibly low drag. Running that long that fast so low to ground would have been impossible to less "sleek" designs. Must have been a thrill seeing the landscape flurrying past for so long.
I remember putting together my first B-58 model airplane. Had it hanging from the ceiling in my bedroom probably around 1961 or so. It had bugs on the windshield as part of its historical significance as best I remember.
The B58 was before my time, but if I may give a B52 story... May 18th, 1980. I was an AFROTC high school cadet at "Open House" day at Fairchild AFB just outside Spokane. We heard a really odd, extended sonic boom (so we thought) at about 8:15AM. Different than any boom before. About 30 minutes later, the Air Force guys are flat-out running toward their vehicles, tearing down the road to the airstrip re: the B52's. Shorty thereafter, our leader came up and paired us off to get home ASAP. Mt St. Helens had blown, and the sky was getting really-really black to the West...... 'course we went outside the AFB to the wheat fields, as close as we could get to the end of the runway..... B52's at 30-second intervals, taking off at absolute full power. Unbelievable... Then, the SR-71 hauled REAR off the runway and arced to the EAST. A stream of flame bolted out of the back, and we heard the sonic boom in 3 seconds. Just an incredible experience.
@@Sybok51288 Thank you, it was awesome. The best part of all is we were dimissed from high school two weeks early. We only had 1-1.5 inches of ash, and no true damage since we were so far away. It was a mess. But, after 6 days, it rained pretty hard and the ash turned to a form of clay. My parents finally let me go to work for minimum wage on the clean-up. I spent a week spraying down the running track at EWU with a firehose, with another HS kid helping me steady the hose. Next week was shoveling ash and driving a very small tractor (I had experience on a small farm), and then we were largely dis-banded since most of the mess was cleaned up. Just a riot of a time.
@@jamesalexander3530 We were at Fairchild, so the aircraft all had plenty of time to get the heck out of Dodge. As to the people; I passed an Air Force pilot physical just a few years later, and I'm running strong at age 60. Could not have had too much of an impact.
When i was very young, a B 58 was tasked with testing the capabilities of the SAGE/Nike air defense syetem in the city where i lived, there was a great deal of publicity surrounding this, and a lot of public attention. My family went out to the vicinity of the Nike site.....I remember the sonic boom as the B 58 passed overhead, it was like a thunderclap. Very frightening to a seven year old.......
@@leeanderson2912 Perhaps, but there were other supersonic aircraft at the time, and i would expect that Western Electric was aware of this threat when they designed the radars...
I lived in the Midwest and a B-58 Air Force base was located not far away. We regularly heard sonic booms in our neighborhood as they flew by. The B-58 didn't last long in U.S. aircraft history, though. I came to find out the reason the B-58 was phased out. It's four jet engines were all mounted off axis on the wings, and if any one of these engines stalled or failed while the plane was flying supersonic, that engine would change from a thrust source to a drag point. At supersonic speeds this instantly destabilized the plan and it immediately disintegrated.
In 1990 I was a student pilot at Fort Worth Meacham field, as it was called back then, and I could see the B-58 that was kept there every day. What a good looking aircraft.
Amazing machine given that it was designed and built only a little over a decade after WWII. It showed how rapidly aviation technology was advancing during that time.
You know, someone born in 1890 in the back of a horse-drawn wagon on the Oregon Trail, if they lived to be 70 years of age, saw commercial intercontinental jet travel. 1890 to 1960 was a epoch of unreal tech growth, eh.
I was hunting deer from my tree stand in Robertson county TX in 1958-59 when a B-58 Hustler came overhead better than mach 1 and the sonic boom nearly knocked me out of my stand. I loved that plane.
I grew up in the late 50s/60's - about 5 miles from Carswell AFB. My Dad worked for Convair on the B58 program and later the F-111 and F-16. I use to watch B58s fly right over our house. They had the coolest sound.
Paul: I worked ta GD in fort worth on F-16 program early 80s. GREAT fighter jet. Every once in awhile there would be an F-111 come in for maintenance/refurb and THAT was really a cool looking plane!
Paul Dirac : From DPM: Got to see a Hustler up close at Offutt AFB (SAC HQ). Darned impressive in 1965. My uncle told me the B-58 we got to see was a trophy winner. I have lost the picture I took. Always wondered if the plane was 92458.
You know why they got rid this aircraft ? Not becuase Russian Sam's. The landing Gear kept collapsing on the Hustler and one did with nuclear bombs on it in Ohio and that was the end of them .
50's and 60's US aircraft were so freaking sexy. The Hustler, Blackbird, Valkyrie, Phantom, Talon, Starfighter, Starlifter, Galaxy and even the early design work for the Tomcat and the Hornet (as the YF17 Cobra). We'll never see anything approaching that level of cool ever again.
Great historical record here! The angle of attack for TOs and landings really was high for this plane. Very enjoyable to watch. I was a systems engineer for a flight test 30 years after this, in which the planes also used the Vandenberg and Edwards ranges.
2022: The B-58 (That and the F-104 are my two favourites) is one of many great aircraft on display, both inside and outside at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona. Truly a wonderful place to visit. Also there are daily tours of the "Bone Yard" at Davis-Monthan AFB just across the street. The Titan Missile Museum is about 1/2 hour drive to the south.
I flew A6E Intruders in the USMC and I must admit that the B-58 was an impressive plane. The A6E had better avionics of course, but raw power and good looks the B-58 was an out standing plane.
Sobering thought: the Wright Brothers´ flight (1903) was closer in time to the moment this was filmed (1959) than the latter is to us! Aviation´s pace of advance was mind-boggling then....
I saw a static display in 1992 at the Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston, TX. It was very impressive to say the least. Would love to have seen one in flight.
I have seen them in flight. I grew up in a house right under the ILS Approach to Kelly AFB, San Antonio. Occasionally one would come in. The last time I remember I was five years old when one went howling very low and very fast over my house just like this one here is doing. I remember my now-late mother running out of the house to see it when she heard it coming. She got out the door just in time for it to go blasting right over our house. Everything shook and then it was gone. I never saw another one fly. The sound in the old film is nothing like experiencing the thundering roar they made at low level and Mach 0.9. I am 59 years old now and that was a fleeting moment in time that I will never forget.
My grandfather worked on this aircraft and project at Convair in Ft. Worth. Many of the systems of this aircraft (B-58) were incorporated into the F-111 several years later, but with many upgrades using upgraded electronics of course
I got to see a b-58 low level bombing pass at Fort Leonard Wood Mo. in the mid sixties. I was a dependent living on base. The area along the Piney River was off limits due to a maneuver called Goldfire. Myself and several friends kind of ignored that order and had fun ambushing troops along the river with our toy guns. One day we found ourselves on a ridge above what was called "The Vietnam Village", a mock up of a hamlet troops could train in. It was deserted and we found out why when a B-58 came roaring down the river valley and dropped a marker bomb which scattered a white cloud and powdered the area around the village. Awesome experience to be so close!
In 1963, a B-58 flew the longest supersonic distance. It went from Tokyo to London (via Alaska), a distance of 8,028 miles in 8 hours, 35 minutes, 20.4 seconds, averaging 938 mph. As of 2013[update], this record still stands.
Now this was an airplane! Sustained 610 knot (700 mph) at 500 feet or less for over two hours. No terrain following radar (like the F-111), and no autopilot ( too low to use safely). So the whole mission was flown manually. My hat is off to these B-58 crew members!
Saw one on static display at Chanute AFB in the 1980s... Loved those little wheels. Very stylish looking plane! This was shot about a month before I was born... It's cool seeing ole Beryl Erickson - 8:45 One of my Heroes.
Great comments, TakeDeadAim. Thanks for sharing the GD stories from your grandfather. I remember seeing B-58s at Bunker Hill AFB (now Grissom) I nominate for fastest looking, but not fastest going, the Douglas X-3 Stiletto. For 1952, this was a sci-fi aircraft.
My father was in the Air Force stationed at Grissom AFB, Indiana in the mid-70's - home to the 305th Bomber Wing. I have a picture of the last operational B-58 taking off to fly to the boneyard at Davis Monthan AFB. They were one of the loudest aircraft taking off with those four afterburning engines. Precision guided munitions and standoff weapons pretty much have eliminated the need for low level missions like this.
I remember going with my Dad a few times as a child of going to Carswell AFB and seeing a B-36 Peacemaker on a static display and some B-58's on the runway back in the early 60's. They were very impressive to a child.
I was 19 years old and served at Edwards AFB in 1965 with the 6515 OMS. I was a ground crew member on a TB-58 and enjoyed my time there on the B-58. As with all things, better planes come along and even at that time it was a top secret airplane. Myself and a friend where the top 2 in our class at tech school and where assigned to flight test at Edwards. So if you where not there or even alive at that time you missed a great time on a great airplane.
Howard Moore Wow! I am so jealous!! And if you were a mechanic, can you confirm that the General Electric J-79 engines in the B-58 were the same ones that powered the F-104 and the F-4? I mean I'm sure they configure them differently for different airframes, but was it really the same basic engine?
Dave Thompson Same engines. Commercial model was CJ805, used on Convair 880 and 990 airliners. All versions were gas hogs, which is why B-58s and Convair (880/990) liners disappeared so quickly.
The Convair 880 Engine : " It was powered by General Electric CJ-805-3 turbojets, a civilian version of the J79 which powered the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom,[2] and Convair B-58 Hustler. " en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_880 Delta Airlines once flew the Convair 880. When I flew on a Delta one they said it was the fastest Passenger jet in usage.
On a ROTC sponsored visit to Bunker Hill AFB, IN (Notre Dame AFROTC Det 225) as part of our ROTC training program. We visited the B-58 Simulator and I got a chance to "fly" it - what a trill for a young kid like me - always wanted to join the AF and fly! While I was in the sim - the visit was quickly stopped and we were escorted to our bus and left in a big hurry - as we were leaving the base the Hustlers were being scrambled - wow - then we realized what had happened - it was the 22nd of Nov 1963 and President Kennedy had just be shot dead! I will never forget that day-----
I was there that same day at the elementary school on base. They sent us home early from school. I noticed that my Dad (who was a B-58 pilot) was in his flight suit and the men coming in and out of the house were all in their flight suits. It was unusual because these guys didn’t lounge around in their flight suits. If the had their flight suits on they were on the flight line. I realized many years later that they were just ready to go to war if necessary.
I always thought the B-58 was a terribly underrated aircraft, at least in its design. I think it just so beautiful. That's odd for a Convair, which I always thought created a lot of designs that never looked quite right. Whether it was its proportions, or just odd lines, Convairs never looked as pleasing to the eye as a Boeing - with the exception of the B-58. Its subtle Coke bottle fuselage, classic delta shape, and needle nose made it look like it was breaking the sound barrier while it sat on the tarmac. A total bad ass. If you can look closely at photos with the gear up, and especially on a rare instance when it wasn't carrying that giant fuel tank/weapons pod under the fuselage, it was incredibly sleek and slender, with nothing cluttering its lines except for the overwhelming presence of four J-79 eardrum breakers under the wings. I suppose the B-58 was unfortunately built at exactly the wrong time, with the much more versatile B-47 and B-52 right behind it, and while we perfected ICBMs as the preferred delivery method for nukes. But I think the B-1B can thank its grand dad Hustler for many of its features. As a 7th-grader in the late 1970s, I built a model of a Hustler and I hung it over my bed, and I dreamt of flying one someday. The B-58 is still one of the few classics I've never seen at an airshow - and of course at this point, never will.
+Dave Thompson While I agree with most of what you said, I have to disagree about Convair products looking wrong. The Convair F-102 and F-106 are, to me, some of the best looking airplanes to fly. I find the Phantom II far uglier, and the things Vought was doing through the 50's were just,, wow, odd and ugly!
If you want to see a Hustler there are 2 mothballed at Montham Davis AFB and one in the Pima air museum. I hope you can make it down to tucson to see one of these amazing bombers.
Dave Thompson I thought the shape of the fuselage looked an awful lot like the B1-B. Make it all black and give it the "swing wings" in place of the deltas and they're nearly twins.
Convair never gave a flip if their products were visually appealing. Their products were designed to perform a function and they did that well. They were not in the entertainment business.
Dave Thompson from DPM: Can’t complain about the Vark. Damn what a beautiful bird. Considering the limited payload of the F-22 and F-35, we need the Vark to put meaningful loads of ordnance on target.
I wish I was alive when you could see B-58s flying all around America. I did get to see a couple F-102s departing Wright-Patterson when I was kid around 1973.
I don’t know why but I love reading veterans argue in the comments, for the most part it’s civil and everyone has their opinion and it’s so informative and you guys are literally discussing war machines and it’s so interesting.
These things were so cool. Retired a bit early i think, but they also had bomb racks under the wings for a fair conventional bomb load to, which would really be useful at low alt.
When I was a child I was lucky enough to see one of these. It did a low level flight right over me. I was in the yard playing, never heard a thing. Just looked up to the north and right over a big maple tree this old girl appeared. She was low and silent until it reached me. Then I could hear it really well. !!!. We lived about 20 miles from a radar station and about 20 miles beyond that was Dow Air Force base. I was always curious if it was trying to make a mock run on the base without being detected. It was a beautiful sight! She was big. She was fast and she was low!!! Even had a pod of some kind on her belly! Impressive!!!
Dead reckoning? Meaning, "we're using the same technology mail planes had in 1920, but now we're flying Mach 1 at sea level"....... Yippee-ki-yay cowboy!
At 500 ft AGL you have all the visual references you possibly hope for. But, don’t waste too much time picking them out, At 700 mph they go by pretty fast.
Soviet SA-2 were deployed at the time of the B-58 introduction in 1960. Gary Powers U-2 was shot down May 1st 1960. It made high altitude supersonic bombers obsolete. The thinking behind using the B-58 at low altitude was ahead of it's time.
The Convair B-58 Hustler is still the US's fastest bomber ever put into production just as the Convair F-106 is the US's fastest single engine fighter aircraft (yes...faster than the F-104). I've loved the beauty since 1958 and only got to see it in person (on display) for the first time at Grissom AFB in Indiana in '03.
B-58! I love it. I think it was our early "cruise missile" in human form. Ground hugging and fast to the target. Watch the Jimmy Stewart video where he flew this beast. Still waiting for a good version to come out native to FSX.
I love the B-58 Hustler, ever since I was a small boy. I had a model of the aircraft and it was my favorite at the time. I wish also that this video was in HD.
Its such a pleasure to see footage like this. This bomber had so much potential at one time but it just got too expensive and had too many problems. It was a decade too soon. But considering how much was invested and spent on all mach 2 aircraft since then the govt might as well have stuck with the B-58 and the eternal B-52. Hindsight is 20 20.
Thats funny. One lonely B-2. If the B-58 had only came along a few years later the technology would have been much better, there would have been much less incidents and accidents. Considering all the tactical strikes that have happened since then, expecially vietnam, the speed and range would have been much more suited to the type of strikes that were being done than Thunderchief ever wold be; put ontop of that the new 'wild weasel' type strikes Hustler would have excelled. Then all the GPS you have the ultimate bomber. Would could have been.
Absolutely amazing, and this is 1950s technology and only eight years after ww2. Amazing truly and the air craft is in it self a work of art. I hope they have saved one for the Air museum ,so that we can go and see it.
I worked on drawings of the B-58 Hustler at Raytheon in 1956-58 before it went into production. The plane was way ahead of its time and started a new trend in aerodynamics.
You have to wonder why 187 people gave a thumbs down to this film. The B-58 was an exceptional leap forward in aircraft design, that we see even today.
There's no question in my mind about the negative ratings! The piano was louder than the voice, and the voice was a soft-spoken Brit accent. The narration was as useless as tits on a bull. I stopped watching it because of the piss-poor audio.
IT WAS RENDERED OBSOLESCENT BY 1963 BY MORE ADVANCED RADAR WHICH COULD DETECT THEM AT 300 MILES FROM TARGET .
@@donaldkgarman296 For radar to detect an object at 300 miles, it must be located very high up. Radar that has the ability to look over the horizon is a relatively recent invention.
Did you notice the protests in the 1950s and 1960s that were anti A-Bomb? Yes, we made and still make some great airplanes. Its World War III and the end of life on earth that bothers some people. We thought the Russians were as strong and dangerous as we were. Looking at their incompetence in Ukraine today you wonder were they always this bad.
Perhaps some try to tell the algorithms they are not interested,
and a thumb down will teach the software to choose diffently
Worked on them in 1967 at Bunker Hill AFB Indiana. They were a maintenance night mare. Fly for 4 hours and work on them for 4 days. Fast as hell! Was on tail #080 now in Tuscon Arizona display aircraft.
I Newton Why shouldn't we look up the maintenance rate for modern fighters? I do know that the F-16, F-15, F-18, pretty much all modern western fighters have much lower maintenance requirements than Century series fighters or the B-58.
Go ahead! I went from Phantoms to F-16s as a maintainer (retired in 2007) and they are a breeze to keep in the air.. We EASILY got close to 100-percent FMC rates with no stat chasing during Desert Shield/Storm.
Ask any experienced maintainer who worked a variety. Part of the reason Phantom and predecessors went away is the enormous maintenance burden. I worked Phantoms before I worked F-16 A/B/C/D and F-16s are no problem to keep flying. Working them is skate compared to the old birds. The F-15 maintainers I worked with said similarly, and nobody knows more about that subject than the people who took 'em apart and put 'em together in Phase Dock and the flightline.
probably reason why Gen. LaMay canned it
I have seen this bird at the museum while I was stationed at Ft. Huachuca.
It's amazing that over 50 years since its Air Force service the B-58 looks as though it belongs to this era. The appearance is timeless.
That Convair/General Dynamics "bone" shaped fuselage can still bee seen in the F16 and the B-1B
That’s sixty three !! from this filming !
@@WootTootZoot Area Rule design, developed by Richard Whitcomb.
In 1960 or 1961 I witnessed a B-58 make a high speed bomb run on Amarillo Texas. The B-58 made a low pass at Amarillo from the south, pulled up over vertical and rolled back level heading south. I just happened to look up as the turn to vertical and escape run occurred. The B-58 was approximately 10 miles south of Amarillo and I got an excellent view up the four giant engines as they provided maximum power in the pull away. I later read of the bomb toss maneuver of the B-58 and I'll never forget the speed, sound and visual sensory information - just by chance.
That maneuver would, in actual combat, have been carried out with 25 megaton yield bombs. The B-58 would not have had to been very accurate with those type of "firecrackers"!!!
The bomb toss, was for nuclear missions. Low yield tactical attacks.
Hi John. The nuclear delivery type which you are describing, going vertical and then going reverse course of your run in course heading was called a "Over-the--Shoulder" delivery. It was not a "toss," as in a the toss nuke delivery you pull 4 G's in 2 seconds, hold, and your timers, which you preset, released the nuke. You never go straight vertical in a "toss." I flew F-4's and was fully qualified in all the nuke delivery profiles and taught them for many years during the Cold War. I read some comments saying it wasn't an accurate delivery method and this is totally false. If you are doing it visually it is very accurate (versus using the 5nm radar bomb strobe), as you would pull vertical directly over your target, release the nuke (a B-53 or B-61 type in the B-58 in the 60's), and then pull back upside down to maintain positive G's while reversing course and then when level roll 180 "upright" and get out of Dodge ASAP!! I had a CNWDI (critical nuclear weapons design information) clearance, taught this stuff, and i also "sat" active Victor Alert (Nuclear Strike) in Germany for way to many years... Cheers!
@@scottrichardson8158 NOPE. The MK-41, a 25 MegaTon nuke (largest US nuke ever made) was never designed to be carried on the B-58. The B-58 only carried the B-53 and 61 series nukes. Cheers!
USN A-3 all three dead I was EO seating facing aft. We like B58 would lob nuke then try to out run nuke explosion.
I was a jet engine mechanic on the B-47 at Little Rock AFB when they retired and we moved the 43rd bomb wing from Carswell to Little Rock in 1964 I think it was. Very complex and I loved it. Because I had that SAC supersonic experience I was selected for the SR-71 program. I showed up at Beale AFB before the gate guards even knew about the 4200 SRW.
Hi Bob, would you happen to remember Mike Crawford? He was both a B-47 and B-58 pilot and my dad.
@@scottcrawford6451 as a lowly engine mechanic, I did not know any pilots.
@@bobsherrill2672 Hi Bob. I flew F-4s and F-16s and unfortunately, what you said about not knowing any pilots is true, but NOT, however, the part about be your being "a lowly engine mechanic." Our aircraft would have never got off the ground if not for your hard work (and that of countless others), so please, don't you ever forget that! When a sole pilot or multi-member aircrew steps to their aircraft in the "bread van" as we used to call it, it is after many hours of pre-mission study followed by a formal flight briefing, all behind closed doors and rarely, if ever, experienced by anyone but aircrew members. Like you, we did our work and you did yours. Unfortunately, the only other people that we typically got to interact with on a personal basis on the flightline were the aircraft Crew Chief, Security personnel, and after flying the Maintenance debrief folks. As you know, if I ever encountered an engine issue during start or taxi I would then need to step to the back up aircraft as engines issues are just not something you fly with and items that are worked on by specialists such as yourself. I, for one, appreciate your hard work and thank you for getting me back home safely thousands of times! Cheers!
@@adeletanner2262 Thank you, Sir. You are too kind.
My brother, Ron Cooper, was a jet engine mech at LRAFB with the B-58. That was the most badass sound ever made.
It was actually a high-altitude bomber originally. As the Soviet SAM's got better, they were forced into a low-altitude mission, which shortened their range. The B-58 was a strategic asset designed to carry gravity-bomb nuclear arms. They were retired after approximately nine years of service, replaced by the F-111 Aardvarks.
A good choice for replacing the B-58, the gooks called her “silent death”, never heard her swooping down on a mountain pass!! Most excellent!!
she is what concorde called great auntie lol
They beleive it or not had decoy missiles to counter Soviet Sam's, Hah !!! 🤣
@@turkey0165 First ive heard of this and curious to know what the decoy missiles were and where they were carried on the aircraft? The only 1960's Soviet surface to air (sam) missile system that im aware of is the SA-2 with the Fan Song radar and Guideline missile, which essentially had zero capability below 1000 feet.
@@apocyldoomer you could always not use slurs you fuckin hick
As a kid one of the early models I put together was the B-58. I always thought it was a cool plane with the delta wings. The fifties was a golden era of jet aircraft.
Same here! 👍🏻😎
Me too !
I had one too!
Grow up, buddy.
Ditto! There was a little button on top to drop the bomb. And we took trips up US-31 to Peru IN so I got to see them at Bunker Hill AFB several times.
I love how these old films bring out the people who worked, flew and lived this stuff. So many very interesting comments and exceedingly important to the history of this era and aviation. Love reading them all.
I feel the same way. Reading their comments almost make it palpable, you can start to see with your mind's eye what it was like to be there 50 years ago or more.
My Grandfather was a "BigWig" @Convair(then GD) during the 50's/60's. I have some of his paperwork along with rough draft checklists/flight manuals for the Hustler. My father remembers well the sound of them departing over Camp Bowie. Along with the thunderous B-36's, Carswell was quite the beehive back "in the day". I have many of his photos of early testing also. Other than the SR-71...I think it's the "fastest" looking plane ever made. Mach 2 sitting on the stand!
As a kid in Dallas in 1964, could hear and feel the frightening sonic booms of the B-58 Hustler from Air Force Plant 1 at Carswell Air Force Base... As an aerospace engineer now, it's the coolest 3 cockpit nuclear bomber ever.
My dad was Fire and Rescue at Convair , Convair Vultee , then GD from 1948 to 1976 when he retired. I have some cool memorabilia from the B-36 and F-111 programs.
My father designed the inlets for the J 57s on the B58 at fort woth.
So does the F-104.
I had a Revell model back around 1958. Loved it! The canopies opened, and the landing gear came down. My then 3 year old brother loved it too...
I experienced one of these low level attack flights back in the 50's on a bombing range in western South Dakota. It came without warning and passed directly overhead with a very loud crash. We thought it had dropped a bomb on us! Then it executed a toss bomb maneuver and went back the way it had come.
That must've been something else to see, supersonic aircraft catapulting bombs. I wonder if that maneuvers ever been filmed because I've read about it, but I've never seen it done.
I experienced a low level bomb run in my living room at twilight. It was a B1 attacking a tank farm to my west. The drive in movie screen between us caused a disagreement between the three computers. This provoked a sub routine that pitched the nose up and lit the afterburners. I got outside to see the third & fourth burner light and then go out. Drive In movie screens, the best defense against the B1.
I attended a mechanics school held on the old James Connally AFB outside of Waco, Texas in the summer of 1969. General Dynamics was using the base to modify the engines on the B-58. Whenever they would test fly the plane, our instructor would allow us to watch. We were no more than a half a mile from the runway. The pilots would buzz the field at about 200 ft. and what must have been full throttle. I have never seen anything like it! Damn thing would be just a trail of smoke and could not be heard until it was already passed our view point, but then the sonic boom would almost bowl us over. I will never forget it.
I did all of my flight training at Connally in 1977 -1979 to get my CFI. It still called Connally, but later changed to TSTI, then to TSTC: Texas State Technical Institute (College)
@@4-7th_CAV impressive
Was the B-58 still being flown in 1969 ?
I built a beautiful B-58 Hustler Supersonic plastic model.
I watched and enjoyed a movie of the B -58, where the crew got mixed up orders to nuclear bomb Russia.
The US military, the US government and the wives of the crew, through the government patching them through to the crew, trying to get the crew to abort the start of world war III. The crew of the b-58 thought that it was the enemy trying to call off the US military strike on the Soviet Union.
Well, it didn't work and the b-58 crew realize that there would be nothing left on Earth pertaining to a runway to land on so they decided to pull straight up under full power after they dropped the nuke on Russia.
Nice entertaining movie.
I heard that there was a Soviet nuclear sub sitting in the water waiting for orders to launch their nukes. And like I said, I heard that day actually got their orders mixed up and almost launched world war III.
@@dougfisher9910 The movie was called" Fail-Safe" and the error was a computer sent the GO code to bombers to attack Russia. It was very realistic and warning that humans relieve too much on computers and flight crew behavior like machines. ua-cam.com/video/oicYUhgff7Q/v-deo.html. During the Cold War, Soviet Air Defense detected a missile launch from the USA, but a only Soviet officer in the control room stopped their counterattack. It turn out it was a large group of birds
My grandfather's brother flew them in the earlier 60's. They nicknamed it the widowmaker. He crashed after the aircraft stalled out. His stalled out after takeoff 3 miles off Grissom AFB in november 1963. The plane was refuled improperly. He could of ejected but wanted to save the other 2 guys in the plane.
In '67, Dad up 2 1/2 days building 2 - 300 HP elec motors for main lift of Forrestal afire off Vietnam as couldn't get at fires. Dad & his Repair Order man impressed, went w/motors to Mich Bomber Base, & only thing that could rocket both motors & passengers was B-58 after 2 consecutive Chrome Dome missions. COL whipped, taught Dad refueling from Tanker, then slept all the way to off Vietnam. COL landed & motors stuffed in 2 - brand new Navy cargo prop jobs for barrier crashes. Dad's Pilot done good, but RO Man's Pilot swerved to right too late paying ultimate price with motor cruising straight thru cockpit. RO man butched up too, so Dad took over motor installation & Sailors more than ready to help with Buddies roasting! When B-58 COL got back to base, he picked mail from slot, & his GEN had sent him mandatory call sign change to Sleeping Beauty, along with SR-71 photos of him sleepin' in the cockpit at still classified flat out speed. They had been sent out as uninformed radar operator had ID'd bullet on his screen, and the SR-71 had hard time catchin' up to check!! That B-58 had saved lives of shtload of Sailors, and Dad's RO Man repaired at Walter Reed & back to work in couple months!! War was hell in more than few ways!!
To think they did this all with analog controls is amazing. I entered the Navy as an AT in the 80s, and they still had some gear from the 50s. It was amazing what those guys did with analog designs back then.
Actually my father worked for the company that produced the power supply for the B-58 and he was treated to a trip to Edwards Air Force Base to see them flying. I saw my first one in real life at an air show in Maryland back in the 60's, and remember the sonic boom the day it raced across the US to break that speed record. What a cool machine for its day. They were also the Vindicator bombers in the movie Failsafe.
Well, in some of the sequences. That film was a continuity nightmare.
Powerful movie! One of my all time favorite cold war nuke dramas with a shocking end
I've always thought the B-58 was a beautiful aircraft.
Same here. Built a highly detailed model of the B-58 when I was a kid. Just an awesome airplane!
When I was very young, I had a small moulded plastic toy of a B-58, and I always thought it was amazing too. But I wondered where it belonged in the history of military aircraft. There were so many interesting planes designed in the 1950's, that ended up being mothballed without ever being used much.
b3j8 my best friend and I built a large model for our high school parade. The Hustler was our mascot of sorts.
Bill Kerr Mssion: destroy Moscow, and be gone before the echo fades. Bonus:
Look good doing it. Hard to believe they built planes like this when cars still had fins...
@libra8a Mine was probably a Revell kit too. I think all my planes and ships were Revell. Cars were AMT. That was 45 yrs ago tho so...Lol
Fortunate to live in Ft. Worth when the B58 was being test flown. One of our neighbors was a civilian test pilot with it, and he promised us a sonic boom. And right on schedule he flew over the neighborhood and it was a beautiful plane...and memorable boom. Forget his first name, last name was Guthrie.
So interesting to read everybodys' posts about building kits of these planes and which ones were their favorites. In the 60's my folks had a hobby shop near the Camp Bowie circle and we had a lot of those plastic kits. To this day I can recognize and name planes from WWI through the 60's because I had to straighten up the stock. There were folks who were into the plastic kits, some of them adults who were very into carefully painting them accurately. Their work was impressive and we displayed them in our front window. Then there were the people who did flying models: RC, control line and even free flight. They flew RC out at Bendbrook lake every weekend. To me it seemed like there was a real airplane culture, not just because my folks had the shop, but all the kids at Ridgley West school were at least very aware of the planes from the base because they flew over us at low altitude all the time. And it didn't seem odd at the time, but the local radio stations reported on things related to the planes at the base. Does anybody remember a wierd incident in '65 when supposedly a flap fell off one of the B-52's and it circled for hours to burn off the fuel before they tried to land it? That was the story I remember from that day. One of the kids came to school with a small, twisted piece of primer grey metal and claimed that the flap landed on a street in his neighborhood and shattered on impact. The kid said people went out and looked at it before the Airforce got there, and that's when he picked up his little piece of it. We knew at school when it was coming in to land because they were tracking it on the radio . I'm a little skeptical of my memory about this because I was a kid at the time and it was so long ago, but my memory is that when it came over we all went to the windows of our class to look and, sure enough, it was missing a flap. It landed safely.
It was a fun time that left me with an enduring love of airplanes and a bad case of tinnitis.🤣
One thing that was not understood until Operation Desert Storm in 1991 was that in daytime low-altitude deep strike missions over desert terrain, the heat distortion from the desert floor makes an approaching aircraft very easy to spot for enemy forces on the ground. The approaching aircraft appears as a large vertical stripe approaching in the distance, which makes it quite easy to shoot at. At least one RAF Tornado was shot down and its pilot captured because of this. The RAF abandoned their low-altitude tactic and switched to striking from high altitude because of this vulnerability.
Wow that’s interesting I had no idea about that! Thnx for comment. The Operations Room channel has an amazing video on the desert storm air war with really great graphics but he never included that detail
I never knew that. I knew they got a Tornado pilot, but didn’t know the details. Thanks for explaining that.
I was on a B-52 during Desert Storm. The early few weeks we did operate at low level, as we were heavily trained to do against the USSR. We quickly abandoned that tactic as it was clear that the sky was THICK with AAA fire. It was likely only a matter of time before one of us got shot to pieces. The main reason for low level flight was to evade SAMs and radar, but we quickly had near complete suppression of Iraqi SAMs and their radars so it was better to go high to evade 90% of the AAA.
@@BooDamnHoo my uncle was a BN out of Barksdale. Flew during Vietnam and retired just after the gulf war. What an amazing aircraft.
@@Foxtrap731 no the RAF Tornado crew that became famous for being “paraded” on Iraqi TV were shot down at night.
My Dad was an Aeronautical Engineer, working for the AF. They had tail section failure at low level, until the rear fuselage was re-enforced. He used to examine crash sites also.
Great to see my father-in-law, Al Mitchell, doing what he loved best. He appears at the 6.20 time mark. Many thanks for posting!
@Jesus 4LIFE :- It's a woman!
camping buddy k
@@amekleihm No , Duh , it's a man, Camping buddy is a joker, LP Mitchell, tell father in law , thank you for your service ! People don't realize just how dangerous this kind of flight is. Big slow birds at low altitudes, no room for error at .92 Mach { 700 MPH ! }, sneeze and your dead { ha !! }
Your father in law is a true patriot, as well as his family. He did a great service for our country in the cold war
@@guyguz7 I've done Mach .92 in a 747/300.
Shaped like the F-106, the B-58 was such a great airframe. John Denver's dad piloted one of these. Low-level, high speed bombing runs were taken over by the FB-111.
FB-111 was a Strategic, nuclear-strike asset replacement for the B-58. The Tactical strike mission was NOT assigned to the FB, but to F-4s, A-7s, and "standard" F-111s, along with F-105s decertified for nuclear delivery (much to the pilots' relief).
Thank you for bringing this film back from the dead, very cool to see.
Great terrane views! Starting at 8:55 you get the itemized feature list reminiscent of an old automobile add. Only thing missing is:
"The B-58 Hustler has it all, does it all. Visit your neighborhood Convair showroom today and put yourself in the pilot's seat!"
My uncle was an electronics technician for GD in Ft. Worth. He arranged for me to visit the plant, and I got to sit in the cockpit of a B-58. A very cool thing for a 9 year old.
It almost looks like something from the future to come - not the past. Love delta-wing aircraft.
What a piece of kit. From Kitty Hawk to this in just over 50 years. I love the 600kt @ 550ft under the VFR part. What an exciting plane. I love this and the English Electric Lightning (as well as the B-52 and F-14 of course).
I remember building a model of the B58. It looked so cool. John Denver’s dad set a world speed record in the B58. Bottom line is “It’s all fun and games until you get a bird strike”😜
I remember building a plastic model of this plane when I was a kid, about 10 years old. Somewhere around 1960.
I think I had a Bachman's Mini Plane of this
bayman50cal : The Revell Kit? Working on 1/48 Monogram kit now. Wish more aspects of the kit worked.
bayman50cal I think this was a B-58 fitted with a modified mission pod. The forward end of the pod contained a forward-looking camera. Note that the view is not looking down the nose in many cases. Also cameras were rigged in the pod looking to starboard and to port of the flight path.The cockpit views are the usual recording cameras. After a simulated pod release, the B-58 would have climbed to an altitude to increase range by reducing specific fuel consumption. Range after release would have been minimal at best. In an all-out war, the crew could not have expected to return to CONUS. A safe landing was probably planned for in Turkey or maybe North Africa. Forward-deployed KC-135 Tankers from NATO bases might have been able to extend that range, but internal fuel capacity (I.e., without a pod) was limited.
I have this model too-M1:144
Same here. Made models of all the new aircraft. B-58 was my favorite.
By far my favorite bomber of all time. Underrated aircraft. I believe it still holds records to this day. I appreciate this upload!
When I was a kid there was this pack of small molded plastic planes you could buy at what we would now call a dollar store. You always wanted to get the bag with the most B-58's in it. It was the coolest looking aircraft of the bunch.
These had incredibly low drag. Running that long that fast so low to ground would have been impossible to less "sleek" designs. Must have been a thrill seeing the landscape flurrying past for so long.
I remember putting together my first B-58 model airplane. Had it hanging from the ceiling in my bedroom probably around 1961 or so. It had bugs on the windshield as part of its historical significance as best I remember.
The B58 was before my time, but if I may give a B52 story... May 18th, 1980. I was an AFROTC high school cadet at "Open House" day at Fairchild AFB just outside Spokane. We heard a really odd, extended sonic boom (so we thought) at about 8:15AM. Different than any boom before. About 30 minutes later, the Air Force guys are flat-out running toward their vehicles, tearing down the road to the airstrip re: the B52's.
Shorty thereafter, our leader came up and paired us off to get home ASAP. Mt St. Helens had blown, and the sky was getting really-really black to the West...... 'course we went outside the AFB to the wheat fields, as close as we could get to the end of the runway..... B52's at 30-second intervals, taking off at absolute full power. Unbelievable... Then, the SR-71 hauled REAR off the runway and arced to the EAST. A stream of flame bolted out of the back, and we heard the sonic boom in 3 seconds. Just an incredible experience.
srsly cool, thanks for sharing! mt st helens and nuclear bombers, damn
@@Sybok51288 Thank you, it was awesome. The best part of all is we were dimissed from high school two weeks early. We only had 1-1.5 inches of ash, and no true damage since we were so far away. It was a mess. But, after 6 days, it rained pretty hard and the ash turned to a form of clay. My parents finally let me go to work for minimum wage on the clean-up. I spent a week spraying down the running track at EWU with a firehose, with another HS kid helping me steady the hose. Next week was shoveling ash and driving a very small tractor (I had experience on a small farm), and then we were largely dis-banded since most of the mess was cleaned up. Just a riot of a time.
@@ButcherBird-FW190Dremarcable. And the world knew nothing how those affected kept going .
I hope you have loads of photos
@@jamesalexander3530 We were at Fairchild, so the aircraft all had plenty of time to get the heck out of Dodge. As to the people; I passed an Air Force pilot physical just a few years later, and I'm running strong at age 60. Could not have had too much of an impact.
When i was very young, a B 58 was tasked with testing the capabilities of the SAGE/Nike air defense syetem in the city where i lived, there was a great deal of publicity surrounding this, and a lot of public attention. My family went out to the vicinity of the Nike site.....I remember the sonic boom as the B 58 passed overhead, it was like a thunderclap. Very frightening to a seven year old.......
I don't think the Nike Hercules radars could adequitly track it at the time.
@@leeanderson2912 Perhaps, but there were other supersonic aircraft at the time, and i would expect that Western Electric was aware of this threat when they designed the radars...
This and the Valkyrie were two of my favorite war planes of the early jet age. They looked fast and so modern, I loved them. Still do.
I'm with you E Anders, the three sexiest jets to grace the sky. XB-70 Valkyrie, B-58 Hustler, and the F-104 Starfighter.
I lived in the Midwest and a B-58 Air Force base was located not far away. We regularly heard sonic booms in our neighborhood as they flew by. The B-58 didn't last long in U.S. aircraft history, though. I came to find out the reason the B-58 was phased out. It's four jet engines were all mounted off axis on the wings, and if any one of these engines stalled or failed while the plane was flying supersonic, that engine would change from a thrust source to a drag point. At supersonic speeds this instantly destabilized the plan and it immediately disintegrated.
In 1990 I was a student pilot at Fort Worth Meacham field, as it was called back then, and I could see the B-58 that was kept there every day. What a good looking aircraft.
Amazing machine given that it was designed and built only a little over a decade after WWII. It showed how rapidly aviation technology was advancing during that time.
You know, someone born in 1890 in the back of a horse-drawn wagon on the Oregon Trail, if they lived to be 70 years of age, saw commercial intercontinental jet travel. 1890 to 1960 was a epoch of unreal tech growth, eh.
@@sailingaeolus can you imagine being some kid in 1890 working at 10 years old in a cotton mill and living to see this stuff? Wow
Bugs have always been on the leading edge of aviation.
I was hunting deer from my tree stand in Robertson county TX in 1958-59 when a B-58 Hustler came overhead better than mach 1 and the sonic boom nearly knocked me out of my stand. I loved that plane.
I grew up in the late 50s/60's - about 5 miles from Carswell AFB. My Dad worked for Convair on the B58 program and later the F-111 and F-16. I use to watch B58s fly right over our house. They had the coolest sound.
Paul: I worked ta GD in fort worth on F-16 program early 80s.
GREAT fighter jet.
Every once in awhile there would be an F-111 come in for maintenance/refurb and THAT was really a cool looking plane!
They were loud!
Paul Dirac : From DPM: Got to see a Hustler up close at Offutt AFB (SAC HQ). Darned impressive in 1965. My uncle told me the B-58 we got to see was a trophy winner. I have lost the picture I took. Always wondered if the plane was 92458.
You know why they got rid this aircraft ? Not becuase Russian Sam's. The landing Gear kept collapsing on the Hustler and one did with nuclear bombs on it in Ohio and that was the end of them .
Only fitting "Paul Dirac" likes "delta" aircraft!
50's and 60's US aircraft were so freaking sexy. The Hustler, Blackbird, Valkyrie, Phantom, Talon, Starfighter, Starlifter, Galaxy and even the early design work for the Tomcat and the Hornet (as the YF17 Cobra). We'll never see anything approaching that level of cool ever again.
Great historical record here! The angle of attack for TOs and landings really was high for this plane. Very enjoyable to watch. I was a systems engineer for a flight test 30 years after this, in which the planes also used the Vandenberg and Edwards ranges.
Great aircraft, amazing performance. But very tricky to fly. Experienced B-58 pilots were recruited to fly the SR-71
ALWAYS Loved the Hustler...
One of the most Beautiful Aircraft ever built... To my eyes!
2022: The B-58 (That and the F-104 are my two favourites) is one of many great aircraft on display, both inside and outside at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona. Truly a wonderful place to visit. Also there are daily tours of the "Bone Yard" at Davis-Monthan AFB just across the street. The Titan Missile Museum is about 1/2 hour drive to the south.
B58 + F-104. Marvelous combination. Sparked my hobby for plastic models :)
The pilot was Convair's chief test pilot Beryl A. Erickson (1916-2006).
I flew A6E Intruders in the USMC and I must admit that the B-58 was an impressive plane. The A6E had better avionics of course, but raw power and good looks the B-58 was an out standing plane.
Gotta love the Intruder. Must have been awesome.
Sobering thought: the Wright Brothers´ flight (1903) was closer in time to the moment this was filmed (1959) than the latter is to us! Aviation´s pace of advance was mind-boggling then....
I hadn't thought of that.
Damn, you are right.
The advancing gain rate of aircraft was as fast, almost, as computer tech.
Amazing plane specially in the sliderule era. Brains were heavily in use back then.
I saw a static display in 1992 at the Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston, TX. It was very impressive to say the least. Would love to have seen one in flight.
I have seen them in flight. I grew up in a house right under the ILS Approach to Kelly AFB, San Antonio. Occasionally one would come in. The last time I remember I was five years old when one went howling very low and very fast over my house just like this one here is doing. I remember my now-late mother running out of the house to see it when she heard it coming. She got out the door just in time for it to go blasting right over our house. Everything shook and then it was gone. I never saw another one fly. The sound in the old film is nothing like experiencing the thundering roar they made at low level and Mach 0.9.
I am 59 years old now and that was a fleeting moment in time that I will never forget.
As a young boy I had a model of the Hustler, it still remains one of my favourite aircraft.
My grandfather worked on this aircraft and project at Convair in Ft. Worth. Many of the systems of this aircraft (B-58) were incorporated into the F-111 several years later, but with many upgrades using upgraded electronics of course
Superb aircraft ahead of its time
Aesthetically still one of the most beautiful aircraft ever built.
I got to see a b-58 low level bombing pass at Fort Leonard Wood Mo. in the mid sixties. I was a dependent living on base. The area along the Piney River was off limits due to a maneuver called Goldfire. Myself and several friends kind of ignored that order and had fun ambushing troops along the river with our toy guns. One day we found ourselves on a ridge above what was called "The Vietnam Village", a mock up of a hamlet troops could train in. It was deserted and we found out why when a B-58 came roaring down the river valley and dropped a marker bomb which scattered a white cloud and powdered the area around the village. Awesome experience to be so close!
I want to see one B-58 returned to flight for air shows.
That would be awesome! I don't use that word often, like so many do today!
Is that possible? Who´d foot the bill?
$300,000 and hour to fly, you gonna pay?
Ok, Boomer. Anything you say. And oh, btw...who is going to pay for it?
Why so it can crash like the B-17's and kill aircrew and inoccent civilians.
In 1963, a B-58 flew the longest supersonic distance. It went from Tokyo to London (via Alaska), a distance of 8,028 miles in 8 hours, 35 minutes, 20.4 seconds, averaging 938 mph. As of 2013[update], this record still stands.
Actually the Shuttle beat that a few times I believe. But that's nitpicking.
@inthepocket That B-58 is at Castle Air Museum in California. Right now It's in the process of being rebuilt.
As memory serves, the SR-71 improved on that by a considerable margin, flying from the west coast of the states to London in under 3 hours.
Indeed, @@mikewilson7812
I know it is old now. It does not matter, I still love the look. Progress so to speak.
Now this was an airplane! Sustained 610 knot (700 mph) at 500 feet or less for over two hours. No terrain following radar (like the F-111), and no autopilot ( too low to use safely). So the whole mission was flown manually. My hat is off to these B-58 crew members!
Yup, they recruited many B-58 pilots to fly the SR-71
B-58 Hustler, the most "lit" name in bomber aircraft.
Larry Flynt should have had one as a private jet.
@@daniels7907 Daniel S. I like your post.
It is obvious......to me..... after reading.
Wish I had written it.
One of my all time favorite planes. I was disappointed when they stopped flying it.
1958: "Bad weather! Cancel the mission!"
2019: "Bad weather! Excellent. They'll never see us coming OR going."
What a beautiful plane! Without a doubt, the shimmering, sleek lines of this aircraft, were amongst the best ever created.
Saw one on static display at Chanute AFB in the 1980s... Loved those little wheels. Very stylish looking plane! This was shot about a month before I was born... It's cool seeing ole Beryl Erickson - 8:45 One of my Heroes.
What a great aircraft! Looks almost ageless!! A true beauty!!
Great comments, TakeDeadAim. Thanks for sharing the GD stories from your grandfather. I remember seeing B-58s at Bunker Hill AFB (now Grissom) I nominate for fastest looking, but not fastest going, the Douglas X-3 Stiletto. For 1952, this was a sci-fi aircraft.
Great video and a beautiful aircraft.
My father was in the Air Force stationed at Grissom AFB, Indiana in the mid-70's - home to the 305th Bomber Wing. I have a picture of the last operational B-58 taking off to fly to the boneyard at Davis Monthan AFB. They were one of the loudest aircraft taking off with those four afterburning engines. Precision guided munitions and standoff weapons pretty much have eliminated the need for low level missions like this.
Now that would be a great “Red Bull” plane. All polished up. Beautiful
when it comes to the cooldness of designs, the 50s were amazing!
I remember going with my Dad a few times as a child of going to Carswell AFB and seeing a B-36 Peacemaker on a static display and some B-58's on the runway back in the early 60's. They were very impressive to a child.
I loved the video! Especially because it has sound. Thanks phor sharing.
I was 19 years old and served at Edwards AFB in 1965 with the 6515 OMS. I was a ground crew member on a TB-58 and enjoyed my time there on the B-58. As with all things, better planes come along and even at that time it was a top secret airplane. Myself and a friend where the top 2 in our class at tech school and where assigned to flight test at Edwards. So if you where not there or even alive at that time you missed a great time on a great airplane.
Howard Moore Wow! I am so jealous!! And if you were a mechanic, can you confirm that the General Electric J-79 engines in the B-58 were the same ones that powered the F-104 and the F-4? I mean I'm sure they configure them differently for different airframes, but was it really the same basic engine?
Dave Thompson Same engines. Commercial model was CJ805, used on Convair 880 and 990 airliners. All versions were gas hogs, which is why B-58s and Convair (880/990) liners disappeared so quickly.
Really? The Convair 880 was powered by the same engines used on supersonic fighters and bombers?? Wow. I had no idea! Very interesting.
Dave Thompson I read that they were powered by J79's used in F4's etc. not those engines.
The Convair 880 Engine : " It was powered by General Electric CJ-805-3 turbojets, a civilian version of the J79 which powered the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom,[2] and Convair B-58 Hustler. " en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_880 Delta Airlines once flew the Convair 880. When I flew on a Delta one they said it was the fastest Passenger jet in usage.
Excellent Video thanks for posting.
Thanks for sharing! What a plane!
On a ROTC sponsored visit to Bunker Hill AFB, IN (Notre Dame AFROTC Det 225) as part of our ROTC training program. We visited the B-58 Simulator and I got a chance to "fly" it - what a trill for a young kid like me - always wanted to join the AF and fly! While I was in the sim - the visit was quickly stopped and we were escorted to our bus and left in a big hurry - as we were leaving the base the Hustlers were being scrambled - wow - then we realized what had happened - it was the 22nd of Nov 1963 and President Kennedy had just be shot dead! I will never forget that day-----
I was there that same day at the elementary school on base. They sent us home early from school. I noticed that my Dad (who was a B-58 pilot) was in his flight suit and the men coming in and out of the house were all in their flight suits. It was unusual because these guys didn’t lounge around in their flight suits. If the had their flight suits on they were on the flight line. I realized many years later that they were just ready to go to war if necessary.
50.000.000 bugs were harmed during the making of this video.
Is that all!
These bugs gave their lives for the service of this great country
I believe several cows were given heart attacks as well...
Was hoping for at least 100,000,000 bugs
What WAS the last thing that went through the bugs' minds when the Hustler hit them?
I always thought the B-58 was a terribly underrated aircraft, at least in its design. I think it just so beautiful. That's odd for a Convair, which I always thought created a lot of designs that never looked quite right. Whether it was its proportions, or just odd lines, Convairs never looked as pleasing to the eye as a Boeing - with the exception of the B-58.
Its subtle Coke bottle fuselage, classic delta shape, and needle nose made it look like it was breaking the sound barrier while it sat on the tarmac. A total bad ass. If you can look closely at photos with the gear up, and especially on a rare instance when it wasn't carrying that giant fuel tank/weapons pod under the fuselage, it was incredibly sleek and slender, with nothing cluttering its lines except for the overwhelming presence of four J-79 eardrum breakers under the wings.
I suppose the B-58 was unfortunately built at exactly the wrong time, with the much more versatile B-47 and B-52 right behind it, and while we perfected ICBMs as the preferred delivery method for nukes. But I think the B-1B can thank its grand dad Hustler for many of its features.
As a 7th-grader in the late 1970s, I built a model of a Hustler and I hung it over my bed, and I dreamt of flying one someday. The B-58 is still one of the few classics I've never seen at an airshow - and of course at this point, never will.
+Dave Thompson While I agree with most of what you said, I have to disagree about Convair products looking wrong. The Convair F-102 and F-106 are, to me, some of the best looking airplanes to fly. I find the Phantom II far uglier, and the things Vought was doing through the 50's were just,, wow, odd and ugly!
If you want to see a Hustler there are 2 mothballed at Montham Davis AFB and one in the Pima air museum. I hope you can make it down to tucson to see one of these amazing bombers.
Dave Thompson I thought the shape of the fuselage looked an awful lot like the B1-B. Make it all black and give it the "swing wings" in place of the deltas and they're nearly twins.
Convair never gave a flip if their products were visually appealing. Their products were designed to perform a function and they did that well. They were not in the entertainment business.
Dave Thompson from DPM: Can’t complain about the Vark. Damn what a beautiful bird. Considering the limited payload of the F-22 and F-35, we need the Vark to put meaningful loads of ordnance on target.
I wish I was alive when you could see B-58s flying all around America. I did get to see a couple F-102s departing Wright-Patterson when I was kid around 1973.
I don’t know why but I love reading veterans argue in the comments, for the most part it’s civil and everyone has their opinion and it’s so informative and you guys are literally discussing war machines and it’s so interesting.
These things were so cool. Retired a bit early i think, but they also had bomb racks under the wings for a fair conventional bomb load to, which would really be useful at low alt.
A beautiful aircraft. deadly beautiful.
When I was a child I was lucky enough to see one of these. It did a low level flight right over me. I was in the yard playing, never heard a thing. Just looked up to the north and right over a big maple tree this old girl appeared. She was low and silent until it reached me. Then I could hear it really well. !!!. We lived about 20 miles from a radar station and about 20 miles beyond that was Dow Air Force base. I was always curious if it was trying to make a mock run on the base without being detected. It was a beautiful sight! She was big. She was fast and she was low!!! Even had a pod of some kind on her belly! Impressive!!!
Low-level bombing run: a very useful capability when dropping a nuke.
Dead reckoning? Meaning, "we're using the same technology mail planes had in 1920, but now we're flying Mach 1 at sea level"....... Yippee-ki-yay cowboy!
"Clock-to-map-to-ground" was the methodology used....
Don’t Dis DR....it can’t be jammed, and it never goes off the air...
Lots of checkpoints, you've got a navigator on board, good weather, no problem at all...
At 500 ft AGL you have all the visual references you possibly hope for. But, don’t waste too much time picking them out, At 700 mph they go by pretty fast.
It's not like the Soviets are gonna lay out a network of radio nav aids for you, and GPS was quite a ways in the future.
The movie Failsafe featured the B-58
But called 'em Vindicators.
I thought those were B-47 Vindicators.
Great video of a truly stunning aircraft. Greetings from the UK.
Soviet SA-2 were deployed at the time of the B-58 introduction in 1960. Gary Powers U-2 was shot down May 1st 1960. It made high altitude supersonic bombers obsolete. The thinking behind using the B-58 at low altitude was ahead of it's time.
The Convair B-58 Hustler is still the US's fastest bomber ever put into production just as the Convair F-106 is the US's fastest single engine fighter aircraft (yes...faster than the F-104). I've loved the beauty since 1958 and only got to see it in person (on display) for the first time at Grissom AFB in Indiana in '03.
Randy Minnick F-15 is faster than the F-106.
strato man
Dummy, he said "single engine". Read before you type.
F-22 is faster.
If the B-1A would have gone in production it would have been about 250 miles per hour faster. Mach 2 aircraft.
I have always thought the 104 was the fastest single engine US fighter.
B-58! I love it. I think it was our early "cruise missile" in human form. Ground hugging and fast to the target. Watch the Jimmy Stewart video where he flew this beast. Still waiting for a good version to come out native to FSX.
Coooool Video..!! Thanks for posting it...!
I love the B-58 Hustler, ever since I was a small boy. I had a model of the aircraft and it was my favorite at the time. I wish also that this video was in HD.
This was one of the most beautiful
Jet bombers ever created. It was a sad end to this great plane.
Its such a pleasure to see footage like this. This bomber had so much potential at one time but it just got too expensive and had too many problems. It was a decade too soon. But considering how much was invested and spent on all mach 2 aircraft since then the govt might as well have stuck with the B-58 and the eternal B-52. Hindsight is 20 20.
Dbusdriver71 Great point. With the same amount of money, you could buy one lonely B-2 Spirit, or about 75 B-58 Hustlers!
Thats funny. One lonely B-2. If the B-58 had only came along a few years later the technology would have been much better, there would have been much less incidents and accidents. Considering all the tactical strikes that have happened since then, expecially vietnam, the speed and range would have been much more suited to the type of strikes that were being done than Thunderchief ever wold be; put ontop of that the new 'wild weasel' type strikes Hustler would have excelled. Then all the GPS you have the ultimate bomber. Would could have been.
Excellent footage.
Absolutely amazing, and this is 1950s technology and only eight years after ww2. Amazing truly and the air craft is in it self a work of art. I hope they have saved one for the Air museum ,so that we can go and see it.