B-58 Temperature Limitations
The B-58′s designed temperature limit was 115ºC but the Convair engineers deemed it safe to operate at 126ºC. Any faster and the honeycomb aluminum skin would begin to debond.
The aluminium/ Stainless steel/ fibreglass honeycomb panels reduced the number of welds and rivets. This gave a smoother skin and meant that heat absorbtion was cut by about 38ºC.
This increased temperature limitation allowed the crew to push the aircraft to over 1400 miles per hour.
There were also limitations as to how long the airframe could maintain such temperatures.
The original mission profile for the B-58 was to cruise to the target area at .91 Mach, then dash at Mach 2-plus above 50,000 feet for approximately 500 miles. Then drop the pod containing the nuclear weapon and return to home base at .91 Mach cruise.
Maintenance crews reported that for every hour the B-58 flew, it took 35 hours of maintenance.