More Hustler Details As 'B-58 Week' Continues!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010 at 01:05PM 
Convair B-58 Hustler
I always find the ‘design process’ to be fascinating, and getting a chance to see what was in the mind of the designers along the way is very cool. The graphic above shows some of the configurational concepts that were considered for the Convair B-58. They’re all pretty similar to what was eventually selected, but they also show some definite differences. As it often winds up in aircraft development, the final design is the one that really looks best overall, and I’d say that’s definitely the case with the Hustler. The clean yet aggressive look of the 4 engines mounted in separate nacelles is pretty much perfect… and the coke-bottle fuselage shape is beyond awesome. I’m thinking the look of the airplane alone was probably enuf to strike some serious fear in any potential enemy!
The picture below shows a B-58 with all 3 crew hatches open. This set up was a little different than typical bombers with a single pilot responsible for flying the airplane, much more like a fighter, and then 2 more crew stations mounted in tandem behind the pilot. They each had a relatively small cockpit and had no way of seeing each other directly. The 2nd seat was for the bombardier/navigator and the 3rd seat for the DSO (defensive systems operator).
Up front, the pilot’s seat was uniquely offset to the left so he wasn’t looking at the windshield center divider all the time. He had great visibility thru the large windshield and side windows, but the other two guys only had small side windows for seeing out. There was a ‘clothesline’ system that ran along one side of the crew compartment wall that allowed for the passage of paper or other small items, and of course they had radio com, but face to face communication simply wasn’t possible. Given the radical nature of a supersonic bomber in the late 1950’s, coupled with the extremely complex nature of the airplane, I’m thinking it took some pretty wild individuals to sit in those back seats with hardly any view and trusting the guy up front as he guides this beast of an airplane that could climb at over 17,000 feet per minute at gross weight!
More cockpit and crew details coming later, but one last point to make in this post. It’s easy to overlook, but if you look at the nose gear in this pic, you might begin to wonder how that long leg could retract into the well when the very large weapons pod seems to be in the way. If you look closely, you can kinda see a pivot point on the gear leg just above the point of the pod. As the nose gear retracted, the upper part of the leg moved aft causing the lower leg with the wheels on it to pivot forward. The rather complex arrangement allowed the entire assembly to collapse and fit right under the cockpit. My research also indicates that the wheel wells (and the elctronics bays) were pressurized and air conditioned due to the extreme heat generated at Mach 2. Can you even imagine the challenges faced in the late 50’s to make all these complicated systems work… it’s pretty amazing stuff. More details later as ’B-58 Week’ continues!
Reader Comments (2)
Yes it was quite a plane. As a cadet in the summer of 1968 I got a ride in one out of Little Rock AFB. I sat in the center seat and got to accomplish some of the checklist items as we got ready for the flight. We took off and cruised south into the Gulf of Mexico where we made a mach run, getting a little over mach 2. The center spikes in the engine inlets move forward as the speed increases and the shock wave generated off the tip bends rearward. This is so that the shock never moves inside the lip of the inlet. The shock wave formed from the inlet spike was easily visible.
I got to do some of the flying on the way back to Little Rock and yes, it handled much like a fighter. We entered holding at Little Rock since the runway was closed. Another B-58 had wiped out its gear when one of the main gear trucks was tilted front pair down rather then the aft pair down.
We ended up diverting to Blytheville and refueling there before returning to Little Rock.
It was quite the experience. Too bad we didn't have digital cameras back then.
Tracy
atp4tr- wow! thanx for sharing that story, what an amazing experience for you!