Posted on 07/29/2016 6:28:24 AM PDT by C19fan
In an era of fantastic aircraft, the B-58 Hustler was one of the most visually striking warplanes ever to fly. Its delta wing, giant engines, and remarkable performance gave rise to the myth that pilots could literally tear the wings off the bomber if they flew it too fast.
(Excerpt) Read more at warisboring.com ...
It did have the coolest looking ejection pod system.
Pi$$ing away taxpayer dollars—Something the US federal government excels at.
Yep. TANF, SNAP, WIC, AFDC, Medicaid, 0bamacare ... heck, even Socialist Insecurity and Medicare are prime examples thereof. The B-58? Not so much ...
In the 1955 movie Strategic Air Command, the climactic flight is supposed to be of a B-47 flown non-stop from MacDill to Yokota but diverted to Kadena, meaning it is essentially flown halfway around the world. I'm guessing that this is Hollywood exaggeration, considering that for all practical purposes the autopilot on the B-47 was useless, and the pilot/copilot had to constantly watch altitude and speed to ensure the plane didn't stall.
Neck and neck with the F104 for the coolest looking things made by man.
John Denver’s dad flew them.
I built models of both from (probably) Aurora or Monogram back in the 60s;they were very striking craft.
We built some cool stuff back in the day.
I remember as a young boy (under 10) building a Revell model of the USA’s newest bomber...... (1959)
F-104....were called post-hole-diggers.....bad reputation...ended up being the pilot air supply or something, IIRC. Lockheed Starfighter.
The biggest downfall of the B-58 was that it was a one trick pony. It was designed around the weapons pod, making it highly inflexible and not able to deliver other loadouts. I could not see the B-58 being able to handle standoff weapons, either nuclear or conventional. No internal stowage due to being designed around a weapons pod, and no accommodation for external pylons. Its Soviet equivalent, the Tu-22 Blinder, did not have such a limitation.
As bad as was the B-58... the B-52 was just the opposite, in service now past 60 years, there is no end in sight on it’s service. Any commander in the field will always welcome the BUFF overhead... knowing soon HELL will be unleashed on the enemy!
https://www.wired.com/2016/04/gods-green-earth-b-52-still-service/
“Neck and neck with the F104 for the coolest looking things made by man.”
Agree.
West Germany flew then well into the 80’s. Amazing jet.
When flying on Low Fly 7 in my A-10, the German 104’s would pounce on us. . .from BELOW!
The rest of the game was rather anti-climatic.
That was the plan back then. . .all jet bombers were designed to be primarily nuclear delivery platforms.
At the start of the Vietnam War, we really didn’t have our jets kitted out for conventional wars, from B-52’s to 105’s, they all had to be updated to perform conventional (non-nuclear) missions.
Nah, F-111’s rock!
There is a reason why the Germans called it the “Widow Maker.”
However, IIRC the F-104 was the first jet that had a thrust to weight ratio in vertical mode greater than 1. A rocket, essentially.
If I recall the story about the German ones, there was a problem with the pilot oxygen that was eventually traced to the company that supplied them. Seemed the intake for the supply was too near some kind of exhaust. Just what I remember, don’t know if it’s true, but you can search for “post hole digger and starfighter” and “widow maker” and see for yourself.
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