Why the futuristic B-58 was useless before it even took to the sky...

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To call it “useless” is completely asinine just because WW3 never happened. Deterrence was the whole point. And regarding cost and reliability, you have to keep in mind what this represented in 1956. Most countries can’t build anything like this in 2023.

I was a 2nd Lieutenant in the USMC flying the F-4B and was at Bunker Hill AFB on a training flight. I was waiting for TO clearance when I was told to hold my position on the taxiway. A couple of minutes later, two B-58s rolled by me and took the runway for TO. They ran up all eight J79 engines at the same time and my F-4 shook like a model T from the enormous power of the engines. My F-4 had two of those same engines so I was used to some sound but not eight at one time. What a beautiful bird! It looked like it was in motion just sitting on the runway.

The B-58 "Hustler" was one legendary airplane. During it's very brief use in the Air Force, it demonstrated it's performance superbly. It might've been useless, but it really was an amazing creation in itself.

The B58 was a great aircraft designed to fill the very same role as the French Mirage 4 bomber in the 1960s. Yet the Mirage 4 was never considered obsolete as it perfectly fulfilled its objective: deterrence. You don't need to drop a nuke to complete your mission.

The most spectacular take off I have ever seen was a B-58 taking off from Carswell sometime in the early sixties. My mom was driving South from the main gate at General Dynamics On what is now Lockheed Boulevard. A B-58 was just lifting off in full afterburner as it passed us going south. It was my favorite plane and I'll never forget the experience.

The B-58 was a testament to just how fast aerospace technology was advancing at the time; just one decade was the difference between groundbreaking and obsolete. That's no fault of the aircraft. My uncle worked at Convair and was heavily involved in the design of the Hustler. RIP, Mickey!

My Uncle Ken was a frustrated fighter pilot! He flew P-40's prewar and before they could transition to the P-38 he was transferred to Kansas and started flying B-24's from Libya and then Italy. He flew in the Berlin Airlift and was then transferred to B-50's and the fledgling SAC. After the introduction of the B-47 and transferred to a SAC Wing in South Carolina. That unit would periodically fly out of Wheeles AB in Libya. His final flight with that unit saw him transferred to Texas and assignment to a SAC B-58 Wing. He absolutely loved the Hustler!

4:20 Minor correction - Little Boy was a gun-type bomb, not an implosion-type; that was Fat Man.

My father-in-law was a B-58 crew chief. He said the things were total maintenance hogs. The avionjcs were beyond state of the art, they were absolute bleeding edge. He told me the things never took off without more than one "red X" (priority malfunction) write-ups against it. It's a wonder more weren't lost. You had to have balls of solid brass and the size of watermelons to strap on one of those things.

The technology was rapidly changing at the time. The B-58 was an amazing jet! Not useless at all. Much was learned from the design.

The Hustler never had missiles. She did carry the B-61 on the external hardpoints but they were gravity bombs just like the main system.

The B-58 was very useful during the Cold War. This airplane, just by existing, was a massive deterrent. It looks like an Angry, Agressive Hornet. It caused the Soviets to invest a lot of resources in high attitude air defences and interceptors. The Soviets were in awe of the thing: how would you like something like that coming after You? Even by today's standards, the performance was awesome. However, the B-52 was about as Effective, using low level penetration, and ballistic missiles were faster. The B-58 was a victim of it's own superb performance. The B-52 turned out to be the Airplane Of The Future. The last B-52 pilot hasn't been born yet.

My father was in the Air force when I was in grade school during the 50's. Me & my pals were always building model plane kits. The most memorable plane was a large scale B-58 that a neighbor kid built. We all sat around it ''pointing & nodding'', as it WAS industrial art w/ a capital 'A'. I think it was the 1st attempt at the B-1.

Idc if it was useless, it’s a beautiful aircraft

John Denver's dad, Maj Henry J. Deutschendorf, set an early speed record piloting his B-58.

Why did I just see an SR71 launched off a carrier

What killed the B-58 was extreme maintenance cost and the price of the Vietnam war. Flying at extreme altitude was no longer a good defense. Instead the USAF got the FB-111 and the B-1 bombers.

I served in the 305 BW. Early morning, before dawn, afterburner take offs were spectacular. 4 pink, purple, and blue exhaust plumes were a thing to behold.

Back in the 60s, I built this Revel B-58 model. It was quite different to the one available today in one big way. It carried an ATOMIC BOMB that could be dropped. The release was on the top behind the cock pit. Models available today are but a shadow in quality to those available in the 50s and 60s.