CONVAIR B-58 Hustler

History of the CONVAIR B-58 Hustler

The CONVAIR B-58 Liar Delta Wing was the first operational supersonic bomber of the United States Air Force (USAF). The product was designed to fly at fairly high speeds at high speeds, a quality popular with early Cold War bombers who simply needed to "fly over" enemy air defenses, including interceptors and ground fire.

Obtained German wartime data on jet aircraft and high-speed flight influenced the B-58 program, resulting in a highly streamlined, aerodynamically sound fuselage and small protrusions - giving the B-58 its final shape an arrowhead.

The B-58 prototype made its first flight on November 11, 1956, and its first supersonic flight on December 30, 1956. Waist" fuselage.

Necessary for high-speed, high-altitude flight, extensive heat-resistant honeycomb sandwich skin panels were incorporated into the wing and fuselage design fuel to power four turbojets (thus limiting the operating range. As a result, a large external two-component jettisonable pod was added under the fuselage, containing additional fuel and nuclear weapons and other mission-specific equipment.

Later versions were equipped with reconnaissance equipment in place of weapons, forming the "RB-58A" trademark crew The personnel quarters B-58 Hustler consists of a pilot, a navigator/bombardier, and a defense system operator, all seated in escape pods.

The U.S. Air Force commissioned a total of 86 Hustlers that served with Strategic Air Command (SAC) between 1960 and 1970. In total, the B-58 has set some 19 world speed and altitude records and won five different aviation trophies while in servicea massive feat of engineering.

Despite these performance gains, the B-58 still suffers from limited range and limited payload capacity, which hinders the family's growth potential.

A total of 116 B-58s were built, of which 30 were test and pre-production aircraft and 86 were in service. The last B-58 was officially retired in January 1970, around the time General Dynamics' first FB-111 Aardvark rotary-wing fighter-bomber (described in detail elsewhere on this page) was accepted into frontline service by the SAC. About three Months later. The simple fact is that when the high-altitude bomber concept was a thing of the past, the B-58 Hustler came along, and the aircraft was retired from the USAF's inventory after only 10 years of service.

Nonetheless, the technological advancements made during development undoubtedly played a role in bomber and turbojet concepts for decades to come.

Specification

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