Convair B-58 Hustler

One of the coolest looking aircarft ever made, one that really pushed the technology envelope in many areas. Amazing to think that something that looks like this first flew way back in 1956.

The B-58 Hustler Page:

https://www.b-58.com/

B-58 Hustler Video Collection:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8BEEDB3436B84D70

Mockup of the MX-1964 predecessor design to the B-58:



B-58 Escape Pod:

Those pods were neat!

Here's the B-58A at the Pima Air Museum in Tucson....it is (was?) an insanely cool plane.

Timely thread Winston! After a year in the parts box my B 58 is under construction. Six D motors, Eight parachutes, landing gear down! I took it for a weigh in and a preliminary inspection by the Level Two and Three guys at the club. It will be approximately two pounds ten ounces loaded and the Pad Fuhrer said he would lift the silly airplane and oddroc ban upon the first snow. So it looks like I will have to fly it up at South Park (Hartsel) on the 21st if I can get her done. That short grama grass doesn't burn nearly as bad as they have launched sparkies with no problem. I will get some build photos going on my fancy phone. Maybe getting a B 58 back in the air will draw a hardened, old school Air Force cold warrior out to launch some of his cool stuff.

For those of you who are scale modelers, Revell has re-issued the 1/48 Monogram kit.

Daddyisabar said:

Timely thread Winston! After a year in the parts box my B 58 is under construction. Six D motors, Eight parachutes, landing gear down! I took it for a weigh in and a preliminary inspection by the Level Two and Three guys at the club. It will be approximately two pounds ten ounces loaded and the Pad Fuhrer said he would lift the silly airplane and oddroc ban upon the first snow. So it looks like I will have to fly it up at South Park (Hartsel) on the 21st if I can get her done. That short grama grass doesn't burn nearly as bad as they have launched sparkies with no problem. I will get some build photos going on my fancy phone. Maybe getting a B 58 back in the air will draw a hardened, old school Air Force cold warrior out to launch some of his cool stuff.

Click to expand...

When I read the title of this thread I thought for sure it was one of yours! This was one of my favorite models growing up as a young Airforce brat.

It has has the dubious honor of being the shortest lived aircraft in the history of the US Air Force...but it sure is a cool looking jet.

Imagine some modern engines on that puppy; each engine puts out about 15k lbs in thrust. Today engines of that size are putting out over 35k lbs thrust (F119). So, two F-22 engines would replace four J79s and STILL put out more go juice, and probably save a lot of gas in doing so. F135 would be even better when they sort that engine out. Modern composite structure to save weight, F-35-like Low Observable technology, electric actuators saving the weight and vulnerability of a large hydraulic system, AESA radar in the nose, flat panel cockpit...HEY, maybe I have something close to a fast Next Generation Bomber concept?!?

I was a 6-7 year old kid when I first saw a picture of the B-58 and I fell in love with it. The Hustler remained my favorite airplane until I saw an SR-71 a few years later.

I've got two unfinished Monogram/Revel 1/48 Scale models of the B-58. Man... THAT is a GORGEOUS aircraft.

The B-58 is one cool looking aircraft

The B-58 is one of the sexiest aircraft ever built. Having said that, a lot of the performance it had came at a cost. One only has to look at it on the ground. Spindley landing gear, a hard delta wing, and little internal capacity due to extreme area rule design. 1 out of 5 built were lost due to accidents. It cost 3 times as much as a B-52 to maintain. Aircraft that came along only a few years later had better performance, larger and more varied bombloads, and were cheaper to maintain.


Talking to old Hustler pilots at the bar, they agreed she was a hot ship....but temperental. Could easily bite you if you were off your game.

FC

PropellantHead said:

I was a 6-7 year old kid when I first saw a picture of the B-58 and I fell in love with it. The Hustler remained my favorite airplane until I saw an SR-71 a few years later.

Click to expand...

+1. Exactly how I felt. The best looking aircraft of the 50's. And the fastest one too.

Bob

FastCargo said:

The B-58 is one of the sexiest aircraft ever built. Having said that, a lot of the performance it had came at a cost. One only has to look at it on the ground. Spindley landing gear, a hard delta wing, and little internal capacity due to extreme area rule design. 1 out of 5 built were lost due to accidents. It cost 3 times as much as a B-52 to maintain. Aircraft that came along only a few years later had better performance, larger and more varied bombloads, and were cheaper to maintain.


Talking to old Hustler pilots at the bar, they agreed she was a hot ship....but temperental. Could easily bite you if you were off your game.

FC

Click to expand...

Many years ago I read in a book on it that I'll have to find again and re-read, but the internal capacity limitations were one of the many reasons for its downfall. They didn't have any room to add systems for penetration of increasingly sophisticated Soviet defensive systems. I also thought I read that it was the first or one of the first US aircraft to fastidiously implement the area rule.

Somewhere on-line there's a very cool accident story about a B-58 bailout at night in the US with the ejected personnel coming down in a blizzard and one of them walking to a ranch/farm house to call the base.

Another very cool looking aircraft with a bad accident record, understandable just by looking at the tiny wing area. I believe the Germans called it The Widowmaker. The F-104 "Missile with a Man in It":



On a different topic but still adverse military situation related, there are some very interesting blizzard stories told on-line by some of those stationed at the far northern DEW Line radar installations. One site with some of them:

DEWLine Adventures

https://www.dewlineadventures.com/?page_id=34

Daddyisabar said:

Timely thread Winston! After a year in the parts box my B 58 is under construction. Six D motors, Eight parachutes, landing gear down! I took it for a weigh in and a preliminary inspection by the Level Two and Three guys at the club. It will be approximately two pounds ten ounces loaded and the Pad Fuhrer said he would lift the silly airplane and oddroc ban upon the first snow. So it looks like I will have to fly it up at South Park (Hartsel) on the 21st if I can get her done. That short grama grass doesn't burn nearly as bad as they have launched sparkies with no problem. I will get some build photos going on my fancy phone. Maybe getting a B 58 back in the air will draw a hardened, old school Air Force cold warrior out to launch some of his cool stuff.

Click to expand...

Really looking forward to seeing that.

chrism said:

For those of you who are scale modelers, Revell has re-issued the 1/48 Monogram kit.

Click to expand...

The very first kit my father gave me was that one. Back then I'm sure it didn't retail for anything close to $49.25 even accounting for inflation. Whew! Are these now made in Germany or Japan instead of in the US, the high cost being due to the exchange rate?

https://www.hobbylinc.com/revell-monogram-b-58-hustler-plastic-model-airplane-kit-1:48-scale-855713

I recently bought one of these at a local Hobbytown USA shop because I no longer want to take the time and effort to properly build and detail a plastic model kit:

F-22 Raptor model

https://www.diecastaircraftforum.co...-22-ak-ha2802-depth-review-lots-pictures.html



Wish they'd bought more of these, an F-15 replacement, ditched the lemon "jack of all trades, master of none" mondo expensive F-35, and instead further upgraded the brilliant, so ugly it's cute A-10 or replaced it with another ground support optimized plane, and either replaced the beautiful F-16 or continued to update it, keeping the F-15/F-16/A-10 philosophy mix rather than going for one aircraft that attempts to do everything and ends up doing each poorly. We now see that the savings in that are as much of an illusion as was the "more economical" reusable launch system called the Space Shuttle.

Winston said:

Really looking forward to seeing that.

Click to expand...

I just posted some pics over in the oddroc section. Building the B 58 as a model rocket is scaring me more than the real one scared PVO Strany. But after seeing the giant scale flights at NARAM nothing scares me now.

Daddy...your B-58 is going to rock! I read somewhere...it could be a rumor...that one B-58 was actually painted in the Vietnam SEA camo scheme with the black undersides....no matter how she is painted, it is one sexy airplane! I am wondering if your B-58 is the start of making the Cold war warriors...B-36, B-47, B-52.....ahh....talk about the Aluminum Overcast!!

Daddyisabar said:

I just posted some pics over in the oddroc section. Building the B 58 as a model rocket is scaring me more than the real one scared PVO Strany. But after seeing the giant scale flights at NARAM nothing scares me now.

Click to expand...

the F-22 is a beautiful plane! I agree..I wish we had not stopped production...

Winston said:

The very first kit my father gave me was that one. Back then I'm sure it didn't retail for anything close to $49.25 even accounting for inflation. Whew! Are these now made in Germany or Japan instead of in the US, the high cost being due to the exchange rate?

https://www.hobbylinc.com/revell-monogram-b-58-hustler-plastic-model-airplane-kit-1:48-scale-855713

I recently bought one of these at a local Hobbytown USA shop because I no longer want to take the time and effort to properly build and detail a plastic model kit:

F-22 Raptor model

https://www.diecastaircraftforum.co...-22-ak-ha2802-depth-review-lots-pictures.html

Wish they'd bought more of these, an F-15 replacement, ditched the lemon "jack of all trades, master of none" mondo expensive F-35, and instead further upgraded the brilliant, so ugly it's cute A-10 or replaced it with another ground support optimized plane, and either replaced the beautiful F-16 or continued to update it, keeping the F-15/F-16/A-10 philosophy mix rather than going for one aircraft that attempts to do everything and ends up doing each poorly. We now see that the savings in that are as much of an illusion as was the "more economical" reusable launch system called the Space Shuttle.

Click to expand...

Fast Cargo..I love hearing how pilots describe their aircraft....did you fly the B-1? I always thought the B-1 was a beautiful airplane...just love the lines of that plane.

FastCargo said:

The B-58 is one of the sexiest aircraft ever built. Having said that, a lot of the performance it had came at a cost. One only has to look at it on the ground. Spindley landing gear, a hard delta wing, and little internal capacity due to extreme area rule design. 1 out of 5 built were lost due to accidents. It cost 3 times as much as a B-52 to maintain. Aircraft that came along only a few years later had better performance, larger and more varied bombloads, and were cheaper to maintain.


Talking to old Hustler pilots at the bar, they agreed she was a hot ship....but temperental. Could easily bite you if you were off your game.

FC

Click to expand...

these are awesome pictures! The B-58 is sexy!! and God bless the engineers that had to design that landing gear! Holy smokes is that thing up off the ground!

just amazing to see the LEAP in technology in the 50's...I mean F-86s were probably still front line fighters when this thing first flew! By the end of that decade you had some all time classics in service..the F-4. F-8 Crusader, F-100, F-102, B-52, KC-135 (707)....just amazing!

Winston said:

https://img6.imageshack.us/img6/460/b5

8hustler02.jpg

Click to expand...

I've had a Monogram 1/100th Scale B-58 Hustler in the PMC pile for more then a dacade. Just haven't been able to figure out a way to make it fly.
Perhaps I'll have to take a look at the Revell 1/48th perhaps the engines in that scale might be bigh enough to get 13mm A10's in??

NJRick said:

Daddy...your B-58 is going to rock! I read somewhere...it could be a rumor...that one B-58 was actually painted in the Vietnam SEA camo scheme with the black undersides....no matter how she is painted, it is one sexy airplane! I am wondering if your B-58 is the start of making the Cold war warriors...B-36, B-47, B-52.....ahh....talk about the Aluminum Overcast!!

Click to expand...

I think that was proposed but they never used the scheme or the aircraft in Nam. There are also some RAF camo schemes out there but again it is just fantasy. Anything would be good to avoid the dreaded silver paint job. I will see how the B 58 goes. If it works then the lessons learned could be used on the big Cold War bombers. Flying such aircraft under rocket power is a bit odd.

NJRick said:

Fast Cargo..I love hearing how pilots describe their aircraft....did you fly the B-1? I always thought the B-1 was a beautiful airplane...just love the lines of that plane.

Click to expand...

I was a Bone driver in the early 90s, before they started getting all the cool PGM stuff. She was an absolute machine down low...effortlessly fast, smooth, and agile. And very few aircraft could keep up with us for any length of time without afterburner.

FC

Daddyisabar said:

I think that was proposed but they never used the scheme or the aircraft in Nam.

Click to expand...

This is one of those things that never quite goes away...the scheme shows up in one of the plastic model plans based on a T.O. for the B-58 back in the day. There is a persistent rumor that they actually prototyped the scheme on an aircraft as a test, but it never flew. The problem is that there is absolutely no photographic evidence to back this rumor up...which seems a shame.

FC

FastCargo said:

The B-58 is one of the sexiest aircraft ever built. Having said that, a lot of the performance it had came at a cost. One only has to look at it on the ground. Spindley landing gear, a hard delta wing, and little internal capacity due to extreme area rule design. 1 out of 5 built were lost due to accidents. It cost 3 times as much as a B-52 to maintain. Aircraft that came along only a few years later had better performance, larger and more varied bombloads, and were cheaper to maintain.


Talking to old Hustler pilots at the bar, they agreed she was a hot ship....but temperental. Could easily bite you if you were off your game.

FC

Click to expand...

Agree... just the most gorgeous aircraft ever built IMHO... even sexier than the SR-71...

It just LOOKS fast-- it looks like a fast plane AUGHT to look... I've walked around the one at Grissom AFB museum many times... just a fantastically cool airplane...

Later! OL JR

I posted a study awhile back in the scale section (one of my "study summaries") of a study using the B-58 for a missile launcher, or orbital space launcher for a rocket slung underneath it... Basically think of a Minuteman slung underneath a B-58...

There's another study proposing the SR-71 for the same purposes...

Check them out if you get a chance...

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showt...-Hustler-Minuteman-Missile-ASAT-Spy-Satellite

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showt...)-for-Air-Launched-Reconnaissance-System-quot

A few pics I found over on the "Secret Projects" forum and added to the "Project Town Hall" thread on the B-58 missile launcher...

Enjoy! OL JR

Here's a 28 minute documentary on the B-58 hosted by Brig. General James "Jimmy" Stewart (Yes, THAT Jimmy Stewart):

[video=youtube;IYvsjGroa78]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYvsjGroa78[/video]

She's a beautiful Bird for sure!!!