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No bomber made so definite a break with the past as the Convair
B-58 Hustler. Reversing the trend towards ever-larger bombers,
the world's first supersonic bomber, the B-58, was ordered by
the Air Force in 1954. This was also the final year of the production
of the huge Convair B-36. From the beginning of its operational
career, the Hustler set a string of performance records that
may never be matched by another military bomber. Alone in its
class, the B-58 could fly faster than twice the speed of sound,
pinpoint targets from an altitude of 60,000 feet, and avoid radar
detection in low level supersonic flight. Powered by four General
Electric J79 engines delivering 15,600 pounds of thrust each,
the Hustler was faster than any other bomber, and had a range
of 4,500 miles without aerial refueling. The B-58's electronic
bombing and navigational systems were ten times more precise
than those on earlier bombers. To reduce drag the aircraft's
designers utilized the "area rule" principle in the
design, giving the Hustler its sleek shape. Very strong honeycomb
skin material was utilized to further reduce weight and allow
the bomber to withstand the high temperatures of supersonic flight.
Utilizing its very strong, but extremely light weight design,
a fully loaded B-58 (after in-flight refueling) would carry a
gross weight equal to seven times the aircraft's dry weight.
It first entered service in 1960. In September of 1962 a B-58
piloted by Fitzhugh Fulton carried an 11,000 payload to the incredible
altitude of 85,000 feet, breaking the world record. With a length
of 99 feet and a wing span of 57 feet, the Hustler was a small
aircraft compared to the B-36. Hustlers were operated by three-man
crews, including a pilot, navigator-bombardier, and defense systems
operator. Each crewmen had his own cramped cockpit with its own
ejection system. The B-58 was unique in that it lacked an internal
bomb bay. Instead all weapons were carried in an externally mounted
under-fuselage pod. The B-58 could carry a weapons load of up
to 19,500 pounds. The pod could also be used to carry additional
fuel. Some B-58s were equipped to carry a stand-off rocket propelled
weapon (a precursor of today's modern cruise missiles) with a
range of 160-miles. The Hustler utilized the delta wing configuration
of Convair's fighters (F-102 & F-106.) Although the B-58
was conceived as a very high altitude long-range bomber capable
of penetrating Soviet air space, it became apparent during the
1960s that Soviet ground-to-air missile technology had improved
to the point that high altitude, high speed bombers would be
very vulnerable to interception. This revelation lead to both
a re-focusing of the B-58s role to a lower altitude, radar-beating,
mission, and a faster phase-out of this aircraft from service
then was originally planned. This was somewhat influenced by
the aircraft's price tag which was four times that of a B-52,
and ten times that of a B-47. As depicted in Stan Stokes' painting
entitled Arctic Hustler, a B-58A flying out of Elmendorf AFB
in Alaska is put through its radar-beating paces in the mid-1960s. |