B-58 video tribute

[SUBMAN1]

A nice video of the B-58 with great music to boot!

Now someone tell me, is that a massive drop tank or massive nuke hanging off the body? I can't tell!

http://shock.military.com/Shock/videos.do?displayContent=172859

-S

PS. Why is a Brigader General flying a combat aircraft? That isn't normal.

[SUBMAN1]

My Air Force contacts just informed me that this plane has the very rare status of never having a single crash! Wow!

-S

[SUBMAN1]

Got my answer - that pod carries a bunch of smaller nukes + fuel. So it does both.

-S

[Tchocky]

That's a cool plane. AFAIK it was a really tricky plane to fly, actually crashed quite a lot.

EDIT - Wiki says It was a complex aircraft that required considerable maintenance, much of which required specialized equipment, which made it three times as expensive to operate as the B-52. Also against it was an unfavorably high accident rate: 26 aircraft were lost in accidents, 22.4% of total production

[Lurchi]

Now someone tell me, is that a massive drop tank or massive nuke hanging off the body? I can't tell!
Cool video - the Hustler is certainly the sharpest looking jet plane the U.S. ever made, together with the Blackbird and the Vigilante.

The object under its fuselage is actually both. The large outer part visible here is the tank - the part that contains the bomb is of the same shape and placed in a recess on the upper part of the Drop tank. In combat the tank is dropped first and the aerodynamic bomb container becomes visible.

Here is an excellent website dedicated to this spectacular cold warrior:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvburen/b-58/ (http://www.xs4all.nl/%7Emvburen/b-58/)

[SUBMAN1]

That's a cool plane. AFAIK it was a really tricky plane to fly, actually crashed quite a lot.

EDIT - Wiki says It was a complex aircraft that required considerable maintenance, much of which required specialized equipment, which made it three times as expensive to operate as the B-52. Also against it was an unfavorably high accident rate: 26 aircraft were lost in accidents, 22.4% of total productionSounds like he's wrong!

-S

[Dowly]

Soo, what's the plane's ICKPS?

[SUBMAN1]

Soo, what's the plane's ICKPS?Huh? lost me man!

-S

[HunterICX]

My Air Force contacts just informed me that this plane has the very rare status of never having a single crash! Wow!

-S
Right....what kind of fantasy are those guys living in?
google a bit and you have the answers.

Although the escape capsule was credited with saving a number of crew members, Bob Norton, who flew the B-58 out of Bunker Hill Air Force Base in Indiana, remembers one instance in which it contributed to a fatal crash. “One of our guys was flying in western Texas and some hail blew the windshield out. He encapsulated himself—you could still fly the airplane with the capsule closed but you could not control the throttles. Anyway, when the windshield blew, he pulled the throttles to idle before he closed the capsule. The trouble was, he couldn’t get [the capsule] open again when the hail stopped,” he says. “With the throttles pulled back, he was going down, so he told the other crew members to bail out. Unfortunately, the navigator’s parachute didn’t deploy and he was killed. After that they installed a cable so the pilot could quickly pull the pod open in flight.”
Even in its operational life, the Hustler maintained its reputation as a dangerous airplane to fly. Darrell Schmidt, a B-58 pilot from 1966 to 1970, says, “There were 116 aircraft built, 26 of which were destroyed in accidents, with 36 crew members killed. If that doesn’t fit the definition of ‘dangerous,’ I don’t know what would.”
http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/speed-freak.html?c=y&page=1

HunterICX

[Platapus]

There were different B-58's in the video. I believe that there were at least two different pods in the video.

The majority of them were of the MB-1C pod but some of the shots I believe were the TCP. Without seeing the underside I can't tell if it was the LA-1 Reconnaissance pod which was rarely used.

Most of the shots were of the MB-1C pod which had two fuel tanks and a W-39 thermonuclear weapon. The MB-1C was not commonly used and was discarded early on due to fuel leaks. One of the distinguishing characteristics of the MB-1C pod was that it had four fins. These four fins can be easily seen in some of the shots in the video.

The other option is that it was the The Two-Component Pod (TCP) being that it was the more common pod used on the B-58. The TCP was split into two separate components which may explain why it was called the two component pod. Sometimes the military does make sense. The lower part of the pod was for fuel and the upper portion was for the Mk. 53 nuke. The advantage of this is that the fuel subpod could be dumped independently of the nuke. The distinguishing characteristic of the TCP (besides the seam pattern) was that it had three fins. In some of the shots, I belive that the fin pattern (in the poor image quality) indicated a three fin pattern (120 degree) vice the four fin pattern (90) degree dispersion.

The B-58 was one awesome aircraft! Beautiful airframe and innovative technology.

And it just looked BAD. :rock:

[Dowly]

Soo, what's the plane's ICKPS?Huh? lost me man!

-S

Innocent Civilians Killed Per Sortie. ;)

[Platapus]

My Air Force contacts just informed me that this plane has the very rare status of never having a single crash! Wow!

-S


From wikipedia

it was an unfavorably high accident rate: 26 aircraft were lost in accidents, 22.4% of total production.

[Platapus]

Soo, what's the plane's ICKPS?Huh? lost me man!

-S

Innocent Civilians Killed Per Sortie. ;)


Well since it was never used operationally to attack anyone I would say it would be rather favourable. :)

[SUBMAN1]

Soo, what's the plane's ICKPS?Huh? lost me man!

-S
Innocent Civilians Killed Per Sortie. ;)Hahahaha! None that I know of! :D :rotfl:

-S

[SUBMAN1]

My Air Force contacts just informed me that this plane has the very rare status of never having a single crash! Wow!

-S
Right....what kind of fantasy are those guys living in?
google a bit and you have the answers.

Although the escape capsule was credited with saving a number of crew members, Bob Norton, who flew the B-58 out of Bunker Hill Air Force Base in Indiana, remembers one instance in which it contributed to a fatal crash. “One of our guys was flying in western Texas and some hail blew the windshield out. He encapsulated himself—you could still fly the airplane with the capsule closed but you could not control the throttles. Anyway, when the windshield blew, he pulled the throttles to idle before he closed the capsule. The trouble was, he couldn’t get [the capsule] open again when the hail stopped,” he says. “With the throttles pulled back, he was going down, so he told the other crew members to bail out. Unfortunately, the navigator’s parachute didn’t deploy and he was killed. After that they installed a cable so the pilot could quickly pull the pod open in flight.”
Even in its operational life, the Hustler maintained its reputation as a dangerous airplane to fly. Darrell Schmidt, a B-58 pilot from 1966 to 1970, says, “There were 116 aircraft built, 26 of which were destroyed in accidents, with 36 crew members killed. If that doesn’t fit the definition of ‘dangerous,’ I don’t know what would.”
http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/speed-freak.html?c=y&page=1

HunterICXYeah, I don't know where he got that from. Maybe I misinterpreted something. I'll beat him up about it when i get a chance.

He was saying other things too, such as this was a one way trip into Soviet Airspace. Not enough fuel to return so the idea was to crash or possibly land in someplace friendly, like Sweden. That is if there is anything left of Sweden!

-S

[Dowly]

Soo, what's the plane's ICKPS?Huh? lost me man!

-S
Innocent Civilians Killed Per Sortie. ;)Hahahaha! None that I know of! :D :rotfl:

-S

Ok, then I say it was a good plane! ;)

[SUBMAN1]

Ok, then I say it was a good plane! ;)Does it change things if it had the capability to kill millions per sortie? :D Nahhh!

-S

[Platapus]

He was saying other things too, such as this was a one way trip into Soviet Airspace. Not enough fuel to return so the idea was to crash or possibly land in someplace friendly, like Sweden. That is if there is anything left of Sweden!

-S

I would say that would be likely. Post strike plans were sorta "open ended" depending on circumstances.

These were men trained to deliver their weapon no matter what.

Priority 1: Deliver the weapon

There was no priority two. :nope:

Heros every one of them. :up:

[SUBMAN1]

...Heros every one of them. :up:I agree! :up: :yep:

-S

[bookworm_020]

I still remmeber seeing the B-58 used in the movie "Failsafe" (on video, as the original was well before my time)

[Platapus]

Awesome movie :up:

[joegrundman]

He was saying other things too, such as this was a one way trip into Soviet Airspace. Not enough fuel to return so the idea was to crash or possibly land in someplace friendly, like Sweden. That is if there is anything left of Sweden!

-S
I would say that would be likely. Post strike plans were sorta "open ended" depending on circumstances.

These were men trained to deliver their weapon no matter what.

Priority 1: Deliver the weapon

There was no priority two. :nope:

Heros every one of them. :up:

So a hero is someone selected/brainwashed/trained to reliably put themselves into grave danger in order to kill millions of civilians? Yummy.

[Platapus]

So a hero is someone selected/brainwashed/trained to reliably put themselves into grave danger in order to kill millions of civilians? Yummy.


It is difficult to explain if you have not been exposed to that environment.

[SUBMAN1]

So a hero is someone selected/brainwashed/trained to reliably put themselves into grave danger in order to kill millions of civilians? Yummy.Nice sarcasm for people willing to give up their lives so that you can have your own! :down:

Maybe you are just coming across wrong. Basically, these guys are willing to die to make sure an evil empire does not try to come over here and take over your life. Its a deterrance yes, but if it is a deterrance that you aren't willing to use, do you really think the Soviets are going not come over here?

-S

[joegrundman]

So a hero is someone selected/brainwashed/trained to reliably put themselves into grave danger in order to kill millions of civilians? Yummy.Nice sarcasm for people willing to give up their lives so that you can have your own! :down:

Maybe you are just coming across wrong. Basically, these guys are willing to die to make sure an evil empire does not try to come over here and take over your life. Its a deterrance yes, but if it is a deterrance that you aren't willing to use, do you really think the Soviets are going not come over here?

-S

Well, they aren't now, no

But, in the scenario you are talking about, then they are killing millions in the first or second strike of a global nuclear war, in which case my life is already in very great danger, so they are not doing the deed to protect me, for if it comes to it, deterrence has already failed and i will likely die, living as i do in major cities.

or is it they are only heroes in the event that they never have to do their job? In which case their lives are in not much more danger than mine anyway.

Or is it that the very act of sacrificing your own life to kill millions of theirs is heroic, in which case does this also go for suicide bombers and the 911 attackers?

[Platapus]

What is heroic is a person who voluntarily would take themselves from a position of relative safety; place themselves in a position of relative risk; with the understanding that their lives may be lost in the furtherance of a goal for the benefit of the greater number.

Firefighters and Law Enforcement are two of many illustrative civilian examples.

As I said. If you have not had experience in that environment, heroism is difficult to explain.

You are, of course, free to consider these people as not being heroic. You have a right to your opinion, and your opinion may have validity. :yep:

But that is the good thing about heros. They don't need any one's recognition. :yep: