FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0017.PDF
FLIGHT, 4 January 1957 17 I ft i THESE photographs, just received from Convair's FortWorth factory, are the first to do justice to the B-58 Hustler, one of the most remarkable aeroplanes yet tohave taken the air. The world's first supersonic bomber (subject of an extensive article in our issue cf Septem-ber 21), it has been built for the U.S. Air Force; and it flew for the first time on November 11 last. The B-58 has a geometry essentially similar to that ofthe F-102 intercepter. The scale factor was about >/2, so that areas are doubled; the B-58 wing, for example,packs some 1,430 sq ft into its 55ft span. The air-to-air picture (above, left) shows the conical camber of the lead-ing edge, a principle which appreciably reduces subsonic induced drag without incurring a supersonic penalty.Roll and pitch control is effected by powered elevons, inboard of which are minute trimming surfaces. Most ofthe underside of the wing, and certain other areas, is skinned with metal-bonded stainless-steel sandwich.Though on most missions the cruise will be subsonic, special cooling systems are provided for the crew (number-ing three), avionics and wheel bays. All air is taken in through the double-shock, variable-geometry intakes tothe four General Electric J79 turbo jets; a diagram of a complete nacelle was published in Flight on Septem-ber 21. At altitude, afterburning thrust at maximum for- ward speed is about 18,000 lb per engine. In our earlier analysis we emphasized that the Hustleris the first aeroplane built from the outset as a weapon system. The aircraft as depicted here is only part of thesystem; it is, in fact, die transport vehicle. All the "opera- tional" equipment is housed in a streamlined containerunder the fuselage. There are to be several of these "mission pods," varying in size and character accordingto dieir purpose. Some will carry free-falling bombs or air-to-surface missiles; others will contain television,photographic or countermeasures equipment, and yet others will house air-to-air weapons for either offensive ordefensive purposes. Pods which do not have to be carried on the return journey can violate the area rule and maybe as much as 50ft long and 8ft wide. The size of the pod is partly responsible for the height of the under-carriage; all three legs break at knee-joints and the main units each have eight high-pressure, flat-tread 22in. tyres. Many of the systems, such as the Bendix-Eclipse tran-sistorized autopilot, the Sperry bombing/navigation system and the Hamilton Standard air-conditioning, wereproved on ground rigs and on other aircraft. Flight test- ing has been remarkably trouble-free and very encourag-ing. The prototype has been flown in close formation with F-102s, has exceeded Mach 1 without using afterburners,and has outrun an F-100 (capable of Mach 1.4) at partial power. A pre-production batch of 12 is in hand.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
