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.

[blueunicorn6]

So they promised the bears free choom and a ride in a fast plane and then they cut them up.......and I thought the Army Recruiters were sneaky.

[donmeaker]

It was a product of the discovery of area ruling. Its sexy lines came from that. Its speed came from that. Its maintenance difficulties came from that.

There are those who assert that it never spent a total of 24 hours on cocked alert in its service.

Others disagree, citing that it could have been ready to fly, they just had a few things that had to get done first.

[Sequoyah101]

My uncle was a 47 pilot in the day. They moved all the time. There were SAC and TAC bases all over the nation. People now simply can’t imagine the numbers. In our region I knew of Carswell, Altus, Reese, Little Rock, McConnell, Tinker, Clinton-Sherman, Perrin, Sheppard, Victoria, Blytheville, Forbes, Schilling, Amarillo, Dyess, Webb, Waco, Goodfellow, Bergstrom, Ellington, the San Antonio complex. Some were training, SAC, TAC, MAC or ALC. Once, we lived close by and visited the base often when I was a child.

We had of course been taught duck and cover in school and knew what the air raid warning sirens sounded like. Of course we never knew when they were simply being tested or if it was for real. Somebody’s in charge in our little town did I’m sure and it may have been in the paper but we didn’t know it. My Dad was a shelter manager as well. We spent some weekends in the shelter on drills. Anyway, we kids knew we were at “Cold War” and were told that it could turn hot just any day.

When visiting the base a time or two the klaxon at the alert bunker went off and the bombers would scramble to MITO and leave in a cloud of smoke. My aunt said that if nothing happened in three hours we were safe. Later in life I learned she would call Mom whenever my uncle left and tell her that if nothing happened in three hours we were safe.

It did sound like freedom but it also sounded like protection and the bomber and fighter pilots were knights protecting the realm.

You might enjoy this: http://www.airforcebase.net/usaf/joeslist.html

Interesting, in 1060 there were no bases in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kentucky or Conneticutt.

[zipper]

That's right, area ruling. Like a T-38, the "white rocket", or an F-5.

[norton]

Sort of in service; they were already lining them up at Davis Monthan by early ‘68.

[norton]

Must have been a very juvenile bear. I've seen those ejection capsules and at 5'8/5'9 I'd be cramped all to heck. I came to believe the tales we used to hear about height restrictions on flight crew.

[donmeaker]

I walk by an early T-38 every day. A pretty plane. I used to walk by a YF-23, but that got shipped off to a museum.

[donmeaker]

My understanding is that some senator proposed, rather than a new F-15 that the B-58 be pulled out from DM and upgraded. The AF let a contract within a month or so, and had the B-58s scrapped.