B-58 Hustler Awesomeness

ae.jpg


My dear boy, obviously ve idealize ze Earth as a point mass!
 
Well, remember too that in 1927 some dude flew across the Atlantic behind an engine three men could lift, when only 25 years before we were trying to figure out what to do with all the horse poop. 20 years later we broke the sound barrier. 20 years after that we were just about ready to send man to another world.

Fun times to be sure, but other advances, while not as sexy, are equally as impressive. The near eradication of polio and small pox are two that come off the top of my head.

I will grant you that the advancement has been uneven and not where we expected it. I mean, it's the 21st century...where are the damn jetpacks and flying cars (putting aside the consideration if that is really such a great an idea, considering how people drive)? How about that every man, woman and child (in the free/modern world) has access to the whole of human knowledge in the palm of their hand, practically anywhere you go (well, in theory, anyway...damn paywalls). I think even the first gen iPhone was beyond the wildest expectations of most even as recently as the 1980s. I will grant you that it's probably not being used to it's full potential...with most queries being the equivalent of looking up Milli Vanilli's pants size.

All that said, if you are going to spend the taxpayers money, the Hustler DEFINATELY ranks as one of the best ways to do it.

Richman
 
Cptnchia said:
Used to fly there all the time in one of these:

Delta%20Express%20737-200%20N310DA%20(00-Powerpuff%20Girls)(Grd)%20FLL%20(BD)(46)-L.jpg
Click to expand...

And we lament your absence, heartily. I get stuck on Murican (eagle) all the freaking time, rolling through Charlotte, which is so much worse than Atlanta I'll just draw the curtain of charity across the rest of my complaints. There is an MD-90 or 717 (not airliners.net enough to know the difference) that's always parked there at the first east gate, but it never seems to go anywhere. At least not with me on it. I'm one of those dudes who pressed their little fat faces against the glass looking at widgets pretty much straight out of the womb, but you've abandoned us to code-shares. :(
 
But, back to the subject at hand, IMS, it was always a Widget 727 straight to A-town. Don't remember ever seeing an Albert. Although I admit that there were a few years (say, uh, 10 or so) where I'd not have known. Call it 2000-2010 or so.
 
About 2 years prior to the retirement of the B-58, was when SAC realized that they needed to switch from high altitude, to low altitude (under the radar) tactics for deep strike interdiction bombing by its B-52 and B-58 bomber fleet (and later B-1 and FB-111A fleet), with the B-47 being mostly, if not completely, out of service by this time. The B-58 was then tested to accept both conventional as well as nuclear ordnance, and tactics were changed to low-level/high speed interdiction as well as attack tactics for same. At this same time, there were provisions made for the possibility (which never occurred) of the B-58 being sent to Vietnam as relief for the constantly-worked B-52D/F/G crews rotating into and out of Thailand/Guam (the B-52H model never served in Vietnam, or even in Desert Storm). For that reason, at least one and possibly two B-58s were painted in the Southeast Asia camo pattern that the B-52D (and TAC F-111A) models used, with camo top and flat black undersides and tail, in concurrence with the low level testing. Pictures of the B-58 painted in the Southeast Asia camo exist, but are extremely difficult to find.

This CGI makeup represents how the B-58 would have looked, exactly similar to the B-52D, if used in Vietnam:


104.jpg
 
Pretty interesting review and some actual footage of a B-58 landing with a damaged gear assembly in 1961.

Way cool that they took off from KNFW in the evening, and stayed airborne all night making multiple air refuelings on a diversion to KEDW, in order to make a daytime emergency landing and not having to do it at night.




Similarly, in 1989, this B-1B Lancer had a nose gear malfunction on a mission out of KDYS near Abiliene, and was diverted to KEDW to make a nose-gear-up landing on Rogers Dry Lake bed. Interestingly enough, the Aircraft Commander of this B-1B who made the landing here, Capt Jeff Beene, was later in 2005 my Board President as Colonel Jeff Beene for the Accident Investigation (Safety) and I was his Investigating Officer (Investigator In Charge), for the B-1B gear up landing I and my team did the investigation on at Diego Garcia.

On this nose-gear-up landing, one of the big unknowns at the time was whether the overhead escape hatches above the 4 crew stations would jam or not, or even be useable, due to fuselage-top compression with the B-1 sitting on its nosecone and main landing gear. You can see in the video, the severe "flex" the top forward fuselage makes when the front of the B-1 finally comes down on the dry lake bed. As it turned out, the Offensive Systems Officer's overhead (seen open near the end of the video) was useable and the escape rope deployed, as well as the normal-entry bottom hatch. The fuselage flexed, but rebounded in order to allow the hatch to open. In the 2005 gear up landing, the bottom normal entry hatch was unusable since the jet was sitting on its belly, and only the OSO hatch was used there too, as the Defensive Systems Officer's hatch was found to be more difficult than normal to open following that accident.


 
Last edited:
MikeD said:
Pretty interesting review and some actual footage of a B-58 landing with a damaged gear assembly in 1961.

Way cool that they took off from KNFW in the evening, and stayed airborne all night making multiple air refuelings on a diversion to KEDW, in order to make a daytime emergency landing and not having to do it at night.




Similarly, in 1989, this B-1B Lancer had a nose gear malfunction on a mission out of KDYS near Abiliene, and was diverted to KEDW to make a nose-gear-up landing on Rogers Dry Lake bed. Interestingly enough, the Aircraft Commander of this B-1B who made the landing here, Capt Jeff Beene, was later in 2005 my Board President as Colonel Jeff Beene for the Accident Investigation (Safety) and I was his Investigating Officer (Investigator In Charge), for the B-1B gear up landing I and my team did the investigation on at Diego Garcia.

On this nose-gear-up landing, one of the big unknowns at the time was whether the overhead escape hatches above the 4 crew stations would jam or not, or even be useable, due to fuselage-top compression with the B-1 sitting on its nosecone and main landing gear. You can see in the video, the severe "flex" the top forward fuselage makes when the front of the B-1 finally comes down on the dry lake bed. As it turned out, the Offensive Systems Officer's overhead (seen open near the end of the video) was useable and the escape rope deployed, as well as the normal-entry bottom hatch. The fuselage flexed, but rebounded in order to allow the hatch to open. In the 2005 gear up landing, the bottom normal entry hatch was unusable since the jet was sitting on its belly, and only the OSO hatch was used there too, as the Defensive Systems Officer's hatch was found to be more difficult than normal to open following that accident.


Click to expand...

300,000LBS+ of fuel pumped on that first
one, nice!!

:)
 
MikeD said:
About 2 years prior to the retirement of the B-58, was when SAC realized that they needed to switch from high altitude, to low altitude (under the radar) tactics for deep strike interdiction bombing by its B-52 and B-58 bomber fleet (and later B-1 and FB-111A fleet), with the B-47 being mostly, if not completely, out of service by this time. The B-58 was then tested to accept both conventional as well as nuclear ordnance, and tactics were changed to low-level/high speed interdiction as well as attack tactics for same. At this same time, there were provisions made for the possibility (which never occurred) of the B-58 being sent to Vietnam as relief for the constantly-worked B-52D/F/G crews rotating into and out of Thailand/Guam (the B-52H model never served in Vietnam, or even in Desert Storm). For that reason, at least one and possibly two B-58s were painted in the Southeast Asia camo pattern that the B-52D (and TAC F-111A) models used, with camo top and flat black undersides and tail, in concurrence with the low level testing. Pictures of the B-58 painted in the Southeast Asia camo exist, but are extremely difficult to find.

View attachment 33511
Click to expand...

My uncle flew both the B58 and the B52 around this time. He did some cool stuff in his career and some stuff we think he did but was never documented or talked about. Tragically, he died in 1972 as an aircraft commander of a B52 during Linebacker 2. We only got his military records some years later and discovered all of this.
 
FlyingAccountant said:
My uncle flew both the B58 and the B52 around this time. He did some cool stuff in his career and some stuff we think he did but was never documented or talked about. Tragically, he died in 1972 as an aircraft commander of a B52 during Linebacker 2. We only got his military records some years later and discovered all of this.
Click to expand...

That is tragic. Especially with his Linebacker 2 connection.

One of the B-52 pilots who was shot down and taken POW during Linebacker 2 and later released and retired as a LtCol, was killed in the Pentagon on 9/11 when the airliner hit his wing he was working in as an NSA civilian
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top