[The Aviationist] Narrated by (Brigadier General and) actor James Stewart, this 1960s film documents the many records of the Mach 2+ supersonic bomber.
Powered by four General Electric J79 engines in underwing pods and designed around a large delta wing, the Convair B-58 Hustler was the first operational bomber capable of flying at Mach 2. The aircraft was developed in the 1950s for the Strategic Air Command (SAC) of the U.S. Air Force, made its first flight on Nov. 11, 1956, and entered the active service in March 1960. It operated throughout the 1960s flying with the 43rd Bombardment Wing, at Carswell Air Force Base, Texas; and the 305th Bombardment Wing at Bunker Hill AFB, Indiana (later renamed Grissom AFB, after after Lt. Col. Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, USAF, a native of Mitchell, Indiana, one of the original seven Mercury astronauts who lost his life in the fire of his Apollo 1 capsule during a pre-launch rehearsal at Cape Kennedy, Florida, in January 1967).
Convair built 116 B-58s: 30 test and pre-production aircraft and 86 for operational service.
The problem with the B-58 was that instruments were aided with a voice alarm system. It was a bunch of 8-Track like tape cartridges with no priority system so it might be nattering about wind speed on some aileron while you just lost an engine. By the time that message came up you likely had crashed.
Because it was instrumented this way... if any in the boneyards are in flyable shape it shouldn't be too hard to make them drones. |
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