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The B-58 was the first supersonic bomber put into production and the
first bomber to reach Mach 2. The Hustler had no internal weapons stowage
and made use of stainless- steel honeycomb construction for lower weight
and greater strength. Crew members had individual escape capsules rather
than individual ejection seats. The B-58 used sophisticated inertial and
star-tracking navigation methods. On October 15, 1959, one of the first
B-58s built was flown 1,680 miles in 80 minutes with one refueling, maintaining
a speed of more than Mach 2 for more than an hour. The 43d Bomb Wing at Carswell AFB, Tex., was the first B-58 unit, and the only other unit was
the 305th Bomb Wing at Bunker Hill AFB, Ind. Aircraft were withdrawn from
service in January 1970 primarily because of the high cost of operation.
B-58s were used to set more world records than any other type of combat
airplane. On March 5, 1962, Maj. Robert G. Sowers and Capts. Robert MacDonald
and John T. Walton were the only entry in the twenty-first and last Bendix
Trophy transcontinental race. Called Operation Heatrise, the crew completed
the Los Angeles to New York course with an average speed of 1,214.71 mph
and total elapsed time of two hours, 56 seconds. The crew was also awarded
the 1962 Mackay Trophy. On October 16, 1963, in Operation Greased Lightning,
a B-58 crew led by Maj. Sidney J. Kubesch took off from Okinawa, flew to
Alaska, over Canada to London to set a world speed record by flying 8,028
miles in eight hours, 35 minutes, 20.4 seconds, averaging 938 mph. Out of
116 aircraft built, 26 crashed, although most of the accidents occurred
early in the plane's career. Eight B-58s survive today in various states
of repair.
| Contractors: |
Convair Division of General Dynamics Corp. |
| Locations Built: |
Fort Worth, Tex. |
| Number Built: (USAF) |
116 (116) |
| First Flight: |
November 11, 1956 |
| First Flight Model: |
XB-58 |
| First Flight Location: |
Fort Worth, Tex. |
| First Flight Pilot: |
Beryl A. Erickson, pilot; J. D. McEachern, flight-test observer; and Charles Harrison, flight-test engineer |
| Models/Variants: |
YB-58. B-58A. RB-58A. TB-58A |
| Powerplant: |
Four General Electric J79-GE-5A, -5B, or -5C turbojets of
15,600 lb of thrust each in afterburner |
| Wingspan: |
56 ft 10 in. |
| Length: |
96 ft 9 in. |
| Height: |
31 ft 5 in. |
| Weight: |
163,000 lb gross |
| Armament: |
One General Electric T171 (later designated M61) Vulcan 20-mm
cannon in tail, plus one MA-1C, MB-1C, or Two-Component Pod (TCP) ventral
pod containing fuel and a variety of nuclear weapons; aircraft later modified
to carry up to four Mk. 43 free-fall nuclear weapons with a yield of approx
one megaton each. |
| Accommodation: |
Crew of three (pilot, navigator/bombardier, and defensive
systems operator) in tandem |
| Cost: |
$12.44 million |
| Max. Speed: |
1,385 mph |
| Range: |
1,750 mi (combat) on internal fuel only; approx 4,000 mi (ferry) on internal fuel only |
| Ceiling: |
64,800 ft |
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