Posted on 11/16/2017 6:03:25 AM PST by C19fan
Worth every dollar in my opinion. Your mileage may vary if you ask the crew members (in the 2nd and 3rd stations) for their opinions. At least the pilot (1st station) could see where they were going and hope all crew members had already punched out if the aircraft had to be abandoned. No time for any hesitation or a second vote once that decision had been made.
I too saw the B-58’s flying out of Bunker Hill, later Grissom, Air Force Base in the early 1960’s. My father took our family there for an air show and several other times as it was less than an hour’s drive from home. I remember sitting off base at the end of the main runway watching them take off.
There was a B-17 on static display then. By the mid-60’s a B-47 had been added to the display. The 305th Bomb Wing flew the B-58’s out of Bunker Hill/Grissom. It had been brought back on active duty by General LeMay. He had commanded the 305th during WWII, when it was part of the Eighth Air Force in England.
I bet that was an incredible sight.
The Stealth Variant.
...or a “section go” of F-4s!
Thanks for the ping. The B-58 was a beautiful bird with insufficient range. Also, it was a maintenance nightmare. Some of our B-47 aircrews transferred to B-58’s and later wrote back saying “Don’t come. Maintenance downtime between flights is about three weeks, so we aren’t getting enough flying time to stay current.”
Dear paddles,
re: “...or a “section go” of F-4s!”
1. as former Asst Shop Chief of the Cal Docks at George AFB, CA, I can tell ya, you are close.
2. I have to hand it to the folks flying F-105G’s, also at George AFB, or the F-106’s back at Dover AFB, DE, with those loud ‘water-injection afterburners’, that ran up to loud, went silent, then BOOM, and off they went.
I lived on base, on Yeager Circle.
you posted: “Maintenance downtime between flights is about three weeks,....”
Holy cripe! Almost as bad as we had with the Shillelagh missile firing system on our M60A2 tanks in the 70s. Get the system functioning, fire one or two rounds of the 152mm main gun non-missile rounds and the Shillelagh system was ‘dead’ again.
Is that base still open? I was there once as a Boy Scout & we were supposed to get a ride on a AF transport aircraft. I was excited because it would have been my first time in the air. Then, the word came down JFK was flying into Bunker Hill (former name) and non essential aircraft were grounded.
Damn democrats!!!
Dear Alas,
I lived in base housing where the bottom of the hill was ‘the dump’, and had ‘the forest’ all around the housing units. In fact, one year, we had a fire go through those woods just behind the house.
Now, trick question ... How many times did you stop at Sandy’s restaurant, just before the Bourne Bridge?
My elementary school was across the bridge, just next to the Canal.
We left in ‘68.
Thanks. I didn’t know the Shillelagh missile system was that bad.
It’s a reserve base now. There’s an air museum located there, hence the hustler.
http://www.grissom.afrc.af.mil
Its sad we even need them, but such is the nature of Communism, etc.
It even had an inertial navigation system. Strikingly complex aircraft accomplished with strikingly primitive technology.
I live in Columbus about an hour east of Dayton - home of the Air Force Museum. Every time I visit, I make sure to see the Valkyrie. My favorite aircraft. It is beautiful and very impressive to see it in person. People don’t realize how huge it is until you stand underneath it. WOuld have loved to see it fly.
Glad there are still some people around from that era. I worked for Frank Uhl in Flight Data Processing during the latter 60’s. I worked mostly projects involving the F-111 but I also worked on odd projects involving the B-57 Canberra, B-58 Hustler, and other aircraft for NASA.
The B-58 was a delta designed bomber with two powerful engines on each side that could exceed Mach 2. It had more complex and dangerous unknowns than any flying brick at that time. (Note the German Air Force and their experience with the F-104 to get an idea of how to fly a brick). Everything was fine as long as the propulsion systems functioned correctly. When they didn’t new problems popped up like the one below.
The B-58 project team was assigned to test a newly developed computer flight control system to detect and correct excessive yaw automatically thereby preventing an unrecoverable event. For instance, if one side of the aircraft suddenly lost power at Mach 2, the aircraft could suddenly yaw beyond it’s flight characteristics causing the pilot to lose control and screw the pooch. So they found a flyable B-58 aircraft, some willing test pilots, and some less than stellar engineering nerds like me to find out if the system worked/s. So off we went until the alloted project deadline (time) or the project budget (dollars) terminated the contract.
I was the young blood on the block so I did not get the plum projects. But I did get around. I got to meet some of the most experienced (some had flown and tested aircraft since WWII) and brightest people in science and engineering (CalTech and MIT) assigned to other project teams. They helped me along the way. They kept me on course when I screwed up. Most of all I got to use my physics and math degrees as well as the latest technology. I really enjoyed the job and think this was one of the most fulfilling points in my career.
Everything was headed digital with new computers and their applications changing daily. IT was evolving and there was nothing but the hands-on experience of learning each vendors hardware and software as you went along. Needless to say I (and many others) were on the bleeding edge of technology. I went on to build an IT career that lasted 35 years.
While attending college I was a professional (like paid $40/hr minimum (non-union) or local union scale) rock band musician/songwriter with a Louie Louie and Chuck Berry repertoire playing anywhere from Grad Openings, Fraternity toga parties, biker bars, weddings, etc. I thought I was happy with job, but life is bunch of chocolates like Forest Gump said. Although I was a good musician, I picked a career in computers and their applications and it was very good to me. Hell, who knows, maybe I would have been the next David Crosby/s. (Remember the Byrds and 8-miles high and hippies dancing everywhere).
Anyway, sorry to stray from the B-58 topic into my personal experiences. May you have a blessed day and thank you again for your experiences and reminding me of days gone by.
The Soviets were glad it did not: Sukhoi T-4 – The Russian Valkyrie http://www.migflug.com/jetflights/russian-valkyrie-sukhoi-t-4.html
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