The Convair B-58 'Hustler'

Timeless, legendary.... and scrapped by the 70s.

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[prsearls]

I was assigned to the B-58's at the 305th Bomb Wing at Bunker Hill AFB in September 1963 thru 1964. I was a weapon's loading crew member. The 58 was a terrific bomber of that era and is one of my all-time favorite aircraft. I have fond memories of them despite freezing during downloading/uploading them in the alert shelters during Indiana winters. I was there during the Broken Arrow accident in December 1964. My next assignment was a bit warmer - Vietnam.

[SteveGillow]

Just as an aside, Singer John Denver's father, Lt Col John “Dutch” Deutschendorf, was a US Air Force pilot who set three international speed records in the B-58 Hustler in 1961.

[Edsel]

The landing gear has 2 wheels at the nose and 8 on each side. This makes the B-58 the world's fastest 18-wheeler.

[seeratlasdtyria]

My father was one of the design engineers on the Hustler, and was justifiably proud of the aircraft and his innovative design element contributions to it. Apparently he was not the only one who thought so as he was promptly 'bogarted' from Convair to help put what he had learned, into helping design the Black Bird, which he considered his greatest 'achievement' right up until the Air Force called him away to the mountains of Colorado (where I grew up) and where they asked him to take command of the then struggling engineering teams who couldn't seem to get the nascent Titan Missile out of the silo without exploding and killing a lot of the military and civilian tech personnel in the process. Only a few short months after him assuming control, they not only got it to rocket up out of the silo, but to become the most deadly, accurate, and reliable, not to mention longest serving, ICBM in history- in fact many are STILL there, waiting patiently in their silo's, ready to deliver American 'smack down' to ANY "Penile Potato" (i.e. 'dictator') who decides to initiate a nuclear war....Granted, I am extremely proud of my father, BUT, I am not exaggerating his importance, to not only the United States, but to the Cold War era Western World. His funeral looked like a convention of the then leaders of the fabled, " Military Industrial Complex" :) All of them for a fellow coming from a place where the name of the local newspaper, was, "The Big Pasture News" :)
Not bad, Dad, not bad at all :)

[alanrogers]

I grew up in the 1950's and 1960's listening to the "Sound Of Freedom", aka sonic booms. Living less than twenty miles from an Air Force Base, I saw and heard early jets every day. I got to know each from its own sound. I remember one day hearing a new sound and running outside to see a flight of B-58s flying right over my house. I miss those days. Thanks for jogging my memories.

[skychief]

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL AIRCRAFT TO EVER FLY!!!

So sleek, so fast, so sure of itself are the only words I can use to describe this wonderful flying machine.
I was a teenager in the early 1960’s when I saw my first and only B-58 Hustler streak across the sky. I watched where it went until it was far out of my sight. What an experience that was!!!
And I’ve filed that memory safety away to return every time I see or hear something about the B-58.
Oh how I wish I could have flown one.

[nicholasmaude]

The scrapping of most of the B-58s in 1977 was a disgraceful act of vandalism and more of them should've been preserved in museums or as gate guardians.

[miketully]

When I was around 7 or 8 years old we got to see a flight of B-58 Hustlers do a supersonic fly by and THAT was impressive. We were told to "look to the east" (out over the Atlantic ocean). And at first we didn't see anything. But then you could just make out a few black dots that seemed to hover motionless just above the horizon. Within a couple of seconds the black dots had swelled silently until they became little more than a group of blurs that flashed past accompanied by the "pitta-pa-BOOM" of their shock waves that seemed to punch you in the chest, and they were gone! Minutes passed, maybe 5 minutes? Before they passed overhead a second time, but this time they were moving slowly enough to actually see what you were looking at, and they were magnificent. Sleek, brilliant silver, and BIG. I'd built models of this beast and had always imagined them to be just a bit bigger that a fighter jet. But they were a lot bigger than that! No one had to tell you that what you were looking at were no puny fighter jets. They looked exactly like what they really were BOMBERS. And impressively sized bombers at that. This was around 1963 or so, and yes I'm that old. And no, I will never forget that day.

[Nisqually]

I was a survivor of a B-58 landing. At the Armed Forces Day show at Andrews Air Force Base outside of Washington DC. The Air Force brought in a B-58 and landed in front of a grandstand full of Congressional staffers and their families. It blew out several tires and skidded dangerously close to the stands. An exciting moment. That was May of 1961. The B-58 left a distinct memory for everyone in the audience. The Army, Navy and Marines all had expensive hardware to show that competed for the same dollars. I can remember one man jet packs, hovercraft, helicopter gunships, tactical missiles, anti-aircraft missile batteries, articulated vehicles, etc.

[jwright]

Thanks for giving some love to the B-58! My grandpa was a B-58 pilot out of Bunker Hill. An absolute beast of a plane with the looks to match

[steaksandwiches]

I’m 41 years old and my grandfather was in the aerospace industry. He had this plane in his office As a lithograph frame. I fell in love with it as a kid. Just absolutely gorgeous

[michaelwilliams]

Before computers, men had slide rules, ingenuity, and BALLS!! One of the the most important design characteristics for an aircraft like the Hustler, the Tu-22 or the B-1 is the appearance of speed and lethality. The 58 paved the way for every supersonic medium bomber flying today.

[paulgracey]

"Die young and leave a fabulous looking corpse" seems a more appropriate descriptive of the B-58. I well remember being impressed as an air and spacecraft obsessed teenager with the extreme good looks of this bomber that flew more like an interceptor. I would in time realize along with the majority of aviation enthusiasts that both of these, the F-102 and B-58 had speed on their side, but maneuverability seemed less than optimum.
Then there was the fact that speed and altitude was no longer a safe refuge from air defense measures. The defensive interceptor could still function but the offensive bomber design that could not switch to below radar level penetration could not. Yes, a short career indeed, and beauty fades quickly where it cannot smoothly transition to the guile that makes for successful ability in old age. We are left with memories of what it seemed to promise, but could not really deliver. Timeless yes, and also rightly only suited to its brief period in the spotlight.

[Gson...]

Casual aviation enthusiast here, and this is my favorite overall airplane.

[franciscodanconia]

One of the few remaining Hustlers is on display at Grissom AFB (formerly Bunker Hill AFB) in Bunker Hill IN just north of Kokomo. The plane is as beautiful as a work of art, if you’re in the area it’s worth a look.

[Britcarjunkie]

Back in the late '70's/early '80's, I worked part-time at a skywriting company, based at Long Beach Airport, in California: they mainly flew on weekends and during the summer (they write sentences in the air, using puffs of smoke emitted from 5 aircraft, flying line-abreast), and they had a "pool" of pilots that would fly for them, as their time permitted: some were retired airlines/military, others were still working - either in civilian or military flying jobs. Some were pretty well-known in the aviation community in southern California, and some, I found out much later (in the last 15 years), were living legends.

One of their pilots, a really cool guy named Jim, claimed to have flown the Blackbird, and said he was a test pilot for that program, for Lockheed.

Of course, being a teenager, I bugged him about how fast/how high the Blackbird could fly (doubting his claim). He actually gave me some numbers for both - the altitude I have seen in print, but the speed he threw at me, I thought he was "full of it", and basically, blew it off.

A few months ago, I come to discover via a group on Facebook, that man was none other than Jim Eastham (callsign "Dutch 52") - not only was he the lead test pilot in the Blackbird program (he WROTE the flight manuals for the A-12, for crying out loud!!!), but he also was one of the lead test pilots for Convair, in the B-58 program!!!

And, here this guy was, flying old, beat-up (well, they ran like Swiss watches, but they were working planes) AT-6's in his spare time, for a skywriting company, because he loved flying THAT much! He flew for them in his spare time for 20 years, or more...a rinky-dink, little skywriting company, had this man flying for them.

I so wish I'd known more about his work back then (it was still classified, of course), and could have chatted with him about it.

Thinking back, now that I know there were 3 variants of Blackbird, I wonder which one he gave me the actual top speed for - and I now wonder if he was really serious about it, but having literally written "the book" on them, only he would have known what that plane was truly capable of...

Sadly, he passed away several years ago.

☹

[garymcaleer]

Excellent! Aesthetically, the most kick-ass plane I've ever seen.

[joelwright]

My dad flew the B-58 in the early/mid 60s with the 305th Bomb Wing at Bunker Hill AFB, Indiana. He absolutely loved it.

[evillemike]

The Hustler is an all time fave - up there with the P51, the Fokker Triplane, and the FA18. My ex-FIL was among the first line chiefs when they were deployed at Carswell and Little Rock - said it was a real bitch, but one of the best flying machines he'd ever touched.
BTW - details like bears in escape pods and sexy Joan Elms - that's what keeps me comin' back.

[darlin_pants]

So thrilled to see this! Dad used to fly these back in the day. He's no longer with us but, oh the stories! It's actually still the license plate on the car he passed down.