In March 1949 the US Air Force's Air Research and Development Command (ARDC) invited proposals for a supersonic bomber, and after submissions had been reduced to two, from Boeing and Consolidated-Vultee's Fort Worth Division, the latter was selected in August 1952 to develop its Convair Model 4 designed to the hardware stage under contract MX-1964. On 10 December 1952 the designation B-58 was allocated and late in that year Convair received a contract for 18 aircraft, to be powered by a new J79 engine for which General Electric received a development contract at the same time. The performance requirement for the new aircraft demanded considerable advances in aerodynamics, structures and materials. The resulting design, one of the first to incorporate the NACA/ Whitcomb-developed area-rule concept, was a delta-winged aircraft with four engines in underslung pods, a slim fuselage and, perhaps its most novel feature, a 18.90m long under-fuselage pod to carry fuel and a nuclear weapon. The three-man crew, in individual tandem cockpits, were provided with jetti-sonable escape capsules.
In June 1954 the 18-aircraft order was reduced to two XB-58 prototypes and 11 YB-58A pre-production examples, together with 31 pods. The first of these was rolled out at Fort Worth on 31 August 1956, making its first flight on 11 November piloted by B. A. Erikson. On 30 December, still without a pod, the XB-58 became the first bomber to exceed Mach 1. A further 17 YB-58As were ordered on 14 February 1958, together with 35 MB-1 bomb pods, to bring to 30 the number of aircraft available for the manufacturer's test programme and ARDC service trials with the 6592nd Test Squadron and the 3958th Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron at Carswell AFB.
A total of 86 production B-58A Hustler bombers was ordered between September 1958 and 1960, supplemented by 10 YB-58As which were brought up to production standard to equip the 43rd Bomb Wing, initially at Carswell but later assigned to Little Rock AFB, Arkansas, and the 305th Bomb Wing at Bunker Hill AFB, Indiana. The first was handed over to the 65th Combat Crew Training Squadron at Carswell on 1 December 1959 and the 43rd Bomb Wing, activated as the first B-58 unit on 15 March 1960, became operational on 1 August 1960. The 116th and last B-58A was delivered on 26 October 1962 and the type was withdrawn from Strategic Air Command service on 31 January 1970.
With such outstanding performance it was clear that the B-58A had record-breaking potential. On 12 January 1961 Major Henry Deutschendorf and his crew secured the 2000km closed-circuit record at 1708.8km/h and on 14 January Major Harold E. Confer's aircraft raised the 1000km record to 2067.57km/h. On 10 May Major Elmer Murphy won the trophy presented by Louis Bleriot in 1930 for the first pilot to exceed 2000km/h for a continuous period of 30 minutes. Sixteen days later Major William Payne and his crew flew from Carswell to Paris setting, en route, record times of 3 hours 39 minutes 49 seconds from Washington and 3 hours 19 minutes 51 seconds from New York; sadly the Hustler crashed at the Paris Air Show on 3 June with the loss of the crew. Other flights included a supersonic endurance record of 8 hours 35 minutes from Haneda, Tokyo to London, on 16 October 1963.
Convair B-58 Hustler on YOUTUBE
Specification
MODEL
B-58
CREW
3
ENGINE
4 x General Electric J79-GE-5A turbo-jets, 69.3kN with afterburner
WEIGHTS
Take-off weight
73936 kg
163002 lb
DIMENSIONS
Wingspan
17.32 m
57 ft 10 in
Length
29.49 m
97 ft 9 in
Height
9.58 m
31 ft 5 in
Wing area
143.25 m2
1541.93 sq ft
PERFORMANCE
Max. speed
2229 km/h
1385 mph
Ceiling
18290 m
60000 ft
Range
3219 km
2000 miles
ARMAMENT
1 x 20mm cannon, nuclear bombs inside the container under the fuselage
Was a Com-Nav NCO with the 340th BW stationed at Bergstrom AFB, Austin, TX. in the mid 60's. We were having problems with a KC135 and one of it's nav systems. When a problem reoccurred repeatedly, a maint guy would fly along to try and understand what was actually going on in flight since things up there could be a lot different than on the ground where we were trying to fix things......besides that, flight pay was a welcomed additioned to the family budget.
This particular mission was refueling somewhere over the South Eastern US. I had gone back to the boomer's booth and was lying along side him to witness the refueling....had never seen this before.
Time of day was twilight, we were a few Kft above dense, but flat topped cloud cover, whole sky was orange (absolutely gorgeous with the orange sun's rays and the flat gray puffs of cloud tops below) and visibility was decreasing rapidly....but not too rapidly to spoil the show.
Astern and below us (above the clouds) and several miles out, a pair of 58's (side by side, one slightly ahead of the other) eased up behind the "gas pump".
One parked off to the side and the first eased up into position. The boomer guided the nozzle into the receptacle and we "gassed" up #1. When finished, he backed off a hundred ft. or so and did a snappy wing walk (wings vertical for a couple of seconds then back to horizontal) over to the opposite side of us from where his wingman was.
Wingman did his snappy wing walk, lining up with us and got into position to repeat the process.
When his appetite had been satisfied, he dropped down and back, coming into alignment with his wingman who was waiting........now this is where the goosebumps raise up on your arms.
As if on que, (which it probably was as they probably were talking to each other on UHF Com.), they did a snappy right angle bank (wing walk style, like before, but both of them in tandem this time) off to the East, in tandem, lit their burners (which were blowing at us by this time), and we saw 8 fireballs disappear into the dusk.
Other than my wife, of 47 1 /2 years, this is /was the most beautiful sight I have ever seen and I shall never forget it.
Later on I was working for Texas Instruments at Dallas and had the privilege of working with a couple of the engineers who were part of the 58 development program at Carswell AFB, FT. Worth, TX. They had some film clips of some of their efforts which they allowed us to view on several occasions.
I can't remember the year but it was in the early 60's I think. A B58 Hustler crashed near Lawton, OK. It was based out of Sheppart AFB. Many pieces of it fell on our farm. We turned in a lot of magnetic tape and pieces of the airplane. Even 30 years later we found yet another piece of the plane in a small forrest on our property. I was just curious if anyone new the name and ranks of those killed it that crash. I would like more information on this crash if possible.
I was a pilot and instructor in the B-58 at Little Rock, AR. Great airplane. I have a web site with pictures and text about the B-58. click the Annex link for 3 more pages of pictures and text. It's at members.cox.net /dschmidt1 / Sign the Guest Book.
I can see this as an Exec Jet with 2,4 mini F22 supercruise engines, extended fueslage, widen fueslage, lower landing gear height. Use CAD to smooth over airframe shape & add cargo in rear or retain Pod for luggage alone. Use composites to reduce weight. Use FBW mode. Longer range. This has a future as an Exec Jet type. Trainer? Air Cargo for Fed Ex, UPS limited size? No emissions engines. Radical. Beats the Lear Jet 24, & Gulfstream types. Is this doable?
I was assigned to the 305th. Bomb Wing as an Air Operations Controller. I watched the B-58's do many a MITO, what an awesome thing to see. I was also present in operations when an alert aircraft crashed on the runway while taking off during an ORI inspection. This crash caused the death of the Navigator when he elected to eject on the ground. It also caused a Broken Arrow requiring the evacuation of the Air Base since the aircraft had a nuclear weapon onboard.
Noticed the name of Maj. Henry (Dutch) Deutschendorf above. He was the father of John Denver. With navigator-bombadier Cpt. Wm. L. Polhemus and defensive systems operator, Capt. R.R. Wagener six world records were broken on the flight mentioned above: 1) At an ave. speed of 1200.194 mph the Hustler topped the previous record of 700.47 mph set by an F-101. 2) It also broke the 639.18 mph Soviet recordwith a 1000 kg payload. 3) Ditto for flying with a 2,000 kg load set by the same unnamed Russian plane 4) For both trips totaling 1242 miles the B-58 averaged 1062 mph. That broke a TU-104 no payload makr of 596.47 mph. 5) Also the 1,000 kg set by the same plane 6) Also the 2,000 kg record held by the same plane. I believe that the tail number was 1021. I collect stamps and envelopes for all aircraft produced at the Ft. Worth plant by Consolidated, Convair, General Dynamics and now Lockheed. I have one of the 15 envelopes carried on the B-58 first flight and signed by the 3-man crew.
