Warbird Information Exchange

hello all

same clipart disc, couple more pics; I assume this is Davis-Monthan, or AMARC or whatever it was called back then?





cheers

gv

Sad end to a really sexy airplane (and this is coming from somebody who normally thumbs his nose at kerosene burners.)

How may B-58s were built, anyway?


SN

...and they are all gone now. What a shame.

There are a handful in museums. Stunning when you see one in person. They just look fast. They look like there is nothing but powerplants and minimal wing/fuse to carry said units.

Here is a link to Wiki that has links to the survivors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-58

Search one out if you haven't before. Well worth it in my opinion.

Eric

_________________
597

I've only seen a couple in person..would have loved to have seen one in the air!

NMUSAF:




And Pima:




SN

Lone Star Flight Museum has the one that used to be in Ft Worth. Chanute Air Museum in Rantoul, IL also has one .

Rick, when I was in the front cockpit on 0668 at LSFM, the largest instrument in the panel is the fuel flow gauge. Its about 1/4 larger than the artifical horizon.

Z

_________________
If God had wanted man to fly behind a flat motor, Pratt Whitney would've built one.

Well you are feeding 4 J-79s. Lets see,... 2 J79s are burning about 20 lbs a mile. Using a nonexact correllation that would put the fuel burn around 40 lbs a mile. 40 lbs / 6.8 lbs per gal = almost 6 gallons per mile. The F-4 idles at 100 lbs per minute, I would imagine that the B-58 is doubling that also.

Makes you understand why the KC-135s are getting worn out. Without the tanker fleet there would have been hardly any mission capability.

i always wondered how the 58 dropped it's bombload with that center pod?? was it jettisoned prior to drop?? or were bombs crammed into that pod too??? i can hardly imagine little bomb bay doors on that pod!!!

_________________
tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

The pod was 2 parts, the lower was fuel, the upper, nukes.
What I would love to see is a video of the nose gear retracting. I have stood in the nose wheel well and figured out all the motions it had to go thru, but would like to see it in action.

At the NMUSAF they have a smallmodel that shows how the nosewheel retracts. Pretty neat. Just ask one of the volunteers.

Arty

We had the AC-47 at the Chanute air Museum airshow a couple weeks ago and I got to get up close to the record setting B-58. It is a Beautiful airplane.

The govt. frowns on civilians operating planes that can deliver nuclear arms to other continents.
The Yankee Air Force owns a B-52, with the understanding that they can never fly it. It would be to valuable to an aggressive nation.
I'm sure it would be the same for the B-58.
Sure, it's 40 years obsolete for us, but it would still be cutting edge for most of the world.

There's a trainer version of the B-58 at the Grissom AFB museum. Gotta get down there one of these days...

As for the flying the Yankee B-52, the last time I was up close to it (two or three years ago) the outer wings were so rotten with corrosion I'd be afraid to even move it. That's not intended as a slam at the museum, just the unfortnate and inevitable result of having to display an aircraft outside. At least she's been spared the scapper's torch!

SN

not much choice lately at Yankee Air Force, the museum burned down a few years ago!