There is a bit of nonsense in that article, but it seems basically correct.
The thing you do not get from photos is how big the thing is. Without the weapons pod, the only way I saw one, on the ground it looked like it is on stilts. I worked on RB-47's and the 58 was almost as long as one of them, and stood a good story off the ground, you could have driven a truck under its belly. It was much more impressive in reality than any of the photos made it look. In a brief conversation with the pilot I was told that the plane could go in supersonically in terrain following mode about 50 feet off the ground several miles away from the target pull up into Immelmann turn releasing the pod just before going over on its back toss it in a high parabolic curve to to the target, and after rolling back to level get the hell out before the the pod hit. He claimed that in that get the hell out mode the plane could do mach 3.5 for a few minutes before skin temperatures became a problem. Of course he could have been exaggerating. However, if the aircraft could do mach 2 with the pod and a full fuel load I do not see why it could not do 3.5 without the pod and only 30% or so fuel. A couple of points at variance with the article you linked; The on board computer did fly the aircraft in terrain following mode. The weapons pod was not a guided missile, aimed yes, guided no. I guess I would call the thing an attack bomber as opposed to a strategic bomber. Certainly the Air Force had nothing that could carry the 58 piggy-back no matter what the original design concept might have been. keith_w wrote: > graywolf wrote: >> The B-58 never existed. The one I thought I saw on the flight line when I >> was in >> the Air Force was obviously a figment of my imagination. Or maybe a >> cardboard >> mockup. Also, either the pilot or Jane's was lying about the performance. > > > Uh huh... > > See: > > http://www.aviation-history.com/convair/b58.html > > keith > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
