The B-58 Hustler entered service about 1960, and served 10 years. A total of 118 planes were built at a program cost of $3-billion. This meant that each plane was essentially worth more than their weight in gold. The Hustler did have a number of problems in service, especially a weak nose gear and a few loss of control crashes, and it had its share of opponents. In the end, the ICBM took away their primary mission, and the Hustler could not adapt to low level penetration flight. They were all but gone by 1970. Only 8 survive today.Back in the 1950’s, the key factor that the Strategic Air Command was looking for was speed. Speed was the ability to deliver an H-bomb anywhere in the Soviet Union in just a few hours. Speed meant flying so fast that enemy defenses could not track you, and enemy fighters could not scramble in time to catch you. Finally, speed meant the ability to get off the ground ready to deliver a counter-strike in the event that the enemy launched a preemptive strike. What SAC had in mind was a Mach 3 bomber that flew at 70,000 feet. This holy grail of bombers, the B-70, would fly higher than what Soviet missiles could reach, and faster than any Soviet fighter. But the B-70 would be a long time in coming. It pushed the edge on just about every system in the aircraft. It was also very controversial, especially in congress.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Aug 2013 01:15:29 +0000
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