B-58 Hustler
 

I'm wondering something about the B-58 Hustler. Some people said it had fighter like agility, other's said it was structurally flimsy -- which is right?

Why not just close this Forum and defer to Wiki for all our aviation questions and discussions ?


Seriously, a question was asked about the B58 hoping for a reply from someone with actual experience in operating or working on the type.



You don't get that from Wiki, this site, however historically delivers 'from the horses mouth' so lets not tell people to go elsewhere.

Historic aircraft
 

Shouldn't all these questions about last century American war birds be in the Aviation History & Nostalgia section ??

Aviation History and Nostalgia - PPRuNe Forums

F101, F105 now the B58 ??

Regards

H

I've been intrigued with the B-58 since watching 'Fail Safe' many, many years ago. For those who missed this excellent movie; it was a serious and thoughtful look at essentially the same doomsday sceanario as 'Dr. Strangelove' but without the comedy. One aspect of the aircraft that I still haven't gotten a plausible answer to is this; how did the nose undercarriage retract? All photographs suggest that if it swings forward the wheels will end up in the radome and if it swings rearward it will strike the centre-line pod. Can anyone enlighten me?

I was going to say that agility and frailty are not mutually exclusive. I agree that it would be marvelous to have a response form an operator or engineer and I should perhaps have waited before posting a Wiki link but I will lay odds we get no replies from the horses mouth, so to speak

I guess if you don't like a topic you should ignore it and move to the next one.:bored:

I seem to recall the main strut bent in the middle.

I think Jane is usually after fairly technical information, and not just about nostalgia. Hence I would imagine there would be a swag of people who are in civvy street now working on the civillian side who might read the technical forums.

A2QFI

Well I for one thank you for the Wiki link. I think the nose gear is starting to retract on the photo on that site, indicating an unusual system, but what I found most interesting was the capsule ejection system for it's 3 crew - it's astonishing that the crew could continue to operate the ac whilst clammed-up. Makes you wonder why we had such a haphazard system for Vulcan rear crew.

STH

I recall an incident report, nothing to do with the wheels though, where the aircraft was on a flight flight after major servicing.

On rotate the pilot's panel died with just the turn and slip working. His navigator talked him round as his panel was working. It seems that the pilot's panel was supposed to be secured with just 4 fasteners and all the connections were gold pin butt connectors. Very advanced for the 60s.

Had the pilot applied mechanical pressure - thumped the panel - it might have worked.

The aircraft also had an astro-tracker, a large electro-mechanical computer.

On its handling I can only offer a negative comment. It certainly had speed that the Vulcan lacked but we never heard USAF fighter crews talking is its fighter like performance whereas they were in awe of the Vulcan.

Is not this the aircraft that if it lost an outboard engine in supersonic cruise the resultant yaw would swipe the pod off.

It was indeed a looker in my opinion.

I have a good friend who was a navigator on B-58's. Fast and fuel critical. Had the balloon ever gone up it was a one way mission he said. Recovery was to Turkey for most of their assigned targets.

He also said she was a nightmare to keep serviceable. The avionics were cutting edge and basically unreliable. He said if they needed the Vulcan gatling cannon in the tail she was a goner as they could not manoeuvre at speed too much.

B-58 Hustler Association HomePage


There is no physical communication between the three cockpits arranged in tandem, and except for the intercom each crew member is on his own, in cramped quarters which do not permit standing, for missions lasting 7 to 8 hours. The pilot has vision ahead and to the sides through a six-window wrap-around windshield, plus two small windows in the canopy for overhead vision. The bombardier/navigator and defense systems operator have a minute window measuring not more than 4 x 6 inches on each side of their compartments. These might seem to serve solely as antidotes to claustrophobia, but often are covered by opaque cloth curtains the better to view radar scopes within the cockpits. Each cockpit has its own individual, jettisonable canopy, hinged at the rear and moved pneumatically.

Each cockpit also has an individual escape capsule--the first enclosed escape system in an aircraft in regular service use. Flight personnel are "sized" for the capsule at the start of the training course, and failure to fit the capsule is a cause for separation from the B-58 program.

The capsule can be closed and pressurized within 7 seconds in case of loss of cabin pressure at high altitude, enabling flight personnel to dispense with pressure suits. In this situation the pilot can see part of his instrument panel through a window in the capsule door, and with full control through the stick inside the capsule, he may fly the aircraft to an altitude below 40,000 feet and decapsulate. Buttons on the stick enable him while encapsulated to disconnect the autopilot, shift the center of gravity, and retard the throttles. In an emergency, rockets eject the capsule from the aircraft, with the enclosed personnel being protected against wind blast, wind blast erosion and thermal injury. After deceleration of the capsule, a 41-foot diameter parachute lowers it. The capsule contains survival gear, including a radio, rations, water, desalting gear, clothing, and a rifle, and will float if it lands in the sea.

:eek:

There are some outstanding B-58 tales here:

tate - bombs awry - AbeBooks

Looking at that AAHS thing - The bomb-nav on the 1961 record crew captained by John Denver's father, Henry Deutschendorfer (not surprising that John went for something a little snappier) was Bill Polhemus. He went on to develop the head-tracking system that is used in the JHMCS helmet display system, among others.

It also talks about the record-breaking flight from NY to Paris, but doesn't mention that the return-leg crew were killed when the B-58 crashed in a flight demonstration days later.

ORAC; Many thanks, deceptively simple, isn't it.

First saw the Hustler at Nellis Field in '59,
when 617 Sqdn was on detachment there with 4 Vulcans.
I recall the Hustler literally disappearing over the horizon during it's take-off run. Black plumes of smoke rising in the distance indicated it had eventually taken off (Courtesy of curvature etc). Whenever it landed a fire tender was usually in close attendance.
In response, our pilots took great delight in doing short take-off runs and climbing away into the blue yonder. I believe it was the first visit of Vulcans to Nellis and to say the USAF guys were rather impressed would be an understatement!

Some years ago I was talking to an American who was a Defense radar operator around that time. He said they once picked something up on the radar that was the fastest thing they'd ever encountered and thought it must be a UFO! It was reported but nothing was said, only later did he discover it was a B-58!

Remember reading a precis of an accident report on a Hustler that had rolled over and crashed on takeoff. It concluded that the pilots were too busy with the ATO checklist to monitor aircraft attitude. The recommendation was to add "monitor aircraft attitude" to the list.

It is ever thus...

And indeed for Valiant and Victor crews.

I am fairly sure a capsule escape system was looked into in the development stage of the Valiant, but money/practicability considerations soon put an end to that idea. There were also plans to fit ejector seats for the rear crew, and ejection trials were actually carried out, again on the Valiant, but once again money talked. The arguments surfaced from time to time, with questions even being asked in Parliament, but by the time I joined the Victor tanker force in 1971 this was just one of those things you accepted.