The bears who became test pilots during the Cold War

io9 ^ | December 19, 2012 | Ed Grabianowski

[EveningStar]

The B-58 Hustler was the world's first supersonic jet bomber, a delta-winged marvel of Cold War design created in the 1950s solely to deliver nuclear weapons to the U.S.S.R. And the "pilot" used to test the capsule ejection system was a live bear.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Wonder if the bear insisted on a full course fighter pilot’s breakfast, a cigarette, a cup of coffee, a shot of oxygen, and a puke.

[PLMerite]

"This Air Force video about the program tries to put a smile on the whole situation, describing how the post-flight bears hung out for a few days munching on food until they were subjected to "the usual complete medical examination." This white paper of the era makes it clear that the usual medical examination involved euthanasia and autopsy."

"Euthenasia and autopsy?"

[llevrok]

As a 9 year old kid, I had a plastic (sort of a rubbery plastic) B58. It had a large bomb that could be dropped (a button on top of the fuselage) and a canopy that opened.

I made hundreds of bombing runs over the family cat.

Good times....

[MasterGunner01]

Convair built a total of 116 B-58 “Hustlers” of all types. About two-thirds (77) were written off in accidents. The B-58 was in service from 1960 to 1970. It was replaced by the FB-111 “Aardvark”. The B-58 was capable of Mach 2, but it was not well liked by its crews.

[Sequoyah101]

It was a beautiful airplane. The flew out of Barksdale AFB back in the day and split the air with their power on takeoff. It was one of the most earth shaking, heart pounding events of my youth to see them go out. Just can’t express how it felt to see and hear them.

A 52 is simply lumbering by comparison. A magnificent airplane in its own right but still a high speed truck.

[Joe 6-pack]

"Just can’t express how it felt to see and hear them."

[Joe 6-pack]

For some reason the rest of my #26 didn’t post. I explained that my dad was a cold war USAF vet. He described it simply as, “the sound of freedom,” which was a more than adequate expression for me :-)

[Sirius Lee]

B-58 = aviation porn.

[JRandomFreeper]

Yep, just checked my book on the Hustler. J79-GE-5A/5B rated at 15,600 lbs thrust at sea level.

/johnny

[Moonman62]

The fuselage looks similar to a B1.

[jttpwalsh]

Hope you don’t mind, I have my own “Sound of Freedom” story. My kids were young, during Desert Storm. The images of Israeli families sheltered in sealed rooms, wearing gas masks, permeated the media. U.S.M.C.A.S. El Toro was nearby, and when the FA-18’s thundered by, overhead, my neighbors and I agreed, that was the sound of freedom. Some of us would even salute them, as they passed. POSTSCRIPT: The base closed about 1998, I sure miss those good neighbors. Thanks!

[JRandomFreeper]

I got hooked reading the book "Aerograph 4 Convair B-58" by Jay Miller when I looked that up a little while ago. I had no idea each engine has 2 FCS units. One for the turbine, and one for the afterburner.

I can get sucked into reading technical documents like that so fast... It's like crack cocaine for the brain.

/johnny

[x]

1) Actual bears? And not, you know, Andrew Sullivan fans?

2) How did they get security clearances? Wouldn't their sympathies be with their Russian cousins?

[BobL]

I guess, back then, they could have used humans (i.e., blacks) for experiments where the outcome wasn’t assured, but they didn’t, and thankfully so.

As for the bears, I happen to have no love for that animal. They, almost always, have a crappy attitude towards life and towards humans. So if a few go bye-bye, tough - enough humans have been mauled for NO REASON, anyway.

And for those bears that gave their lives to help us in the Cold War, I applaud them. We were looking at wiping out BILLIONS of people, if either side was perceived as weak. These bears helped us convince the Soviets that we meant business, and there are, likely hundreds of millions, if not billions of people alive today that would not be, if either side blinked.

[yarddog]

My Father worked at Eglin for nearly 35 years. Sometimes when he was working the night shift, he would let me spend the night. I would get to walk around and look over all the planes in the King Hangar.

Before that he worked in the basement of building 100. During that time Eglin was a SAC base. This was during the late 50s or maybe early 60s.

One night while I was there, they had a B-52 scramble. I am not sure how many there was but it was around 6. Each one had 8 engines. You can imagine the roar.

[Flick Lives]

The B-58 ejection pod looks like something straight out of Star Wars.

[rlmorel]

LOL...I never worked on one (I was an A-7 mechanic) but you know how it is with some women...just LOOKING at them, you know they are trouble...:)

But hoo-boy, what a HOT looking plane!

[Erasmus]

With manipulator arms, it could be something out of 2001: A Space Odyssey.