Convair B-36 Peacemaker
Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2020 9:25 am
Interesting video on this extraordinary aircraft...
and a visit to the UK.
and a visit to the UK.
A Convivial Aviation Discussion Forum for Aviators, Aviatrices and for those who think Flying Machines are Magic.
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Jet?Pontius Navigator wrote: ↑Sat Sep 12, 2020 4:02 pmApart from the 10 engines it also carried a spare in an underwing chamber. I didn't have time to check both sides to see if it might have had two.
Available for rent on Google..Pontius Navigator wrote: ↑Sat Sep 12, 2020 5:00 pmNo, spare piston engine.
It had 6 for turning and 4 for burning. It was in the SAC Museum but no longer looking at Google Earth.
Also look at Strategic Air Command a 1955 film staring James Stewart.
Pontius Navigator wrote: ↑Sat Sep 12, 2020 5:21 pmLook for a film
Strategic Air Command Computer Control System
Convair B-58 HustlerThe Convair B-58 Hustler, designed and produced by American aircraft manufacturer Convair, was the first operational bomber capable of Mach 2 flight.
The B-58 was developed during the 1950s for the United States Air Force's (USAF) Strategic Air Command (SAC). To achieve the high speeds desired, Convair designed it around a large delta wing, which was also used by contemporary fighters such as the Convair F-102. It was powered by four General Electric J79 engines in underwing pods. It had no bomb bay; it carried a single nuclear weapon plus fuel in a combination bomb/fuel pod underneath the fuselage. Later, four external hardpoints were added, enabling it to carry up to five weapons.
The B-58 entered service in March 1960, and was operated for a decade by two SAC bomb wings: the 43d Bombardment Wing and the 305th Bombardment Wing. It was considered a difficult aircraft to fly, imposing a high workload upon its three-man crews. Designed to replace the Boeing B-47 Stratojet strategic bomber, the B-58 became notorious for its sonic boom, which was often heard on the ground by the public as it passed overhead in supersonic flight.
The B-58 was originally intended to fly at high altitudes and supersonic speeds to avoid Soviet interceptors. But with the Soviet introduction of high-altitude surface-to-air missiles, the B-58 was forced to adopt a low-level-penetration role that severely limited its range and strategic value. It was never used to deliver conventional bombs. The B-58 was substantially more expensive to operate than other bombers, such as the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, and required more frequent aerial refueling. The B-58 also suffered from a high rate of accidental losses. All of this led to a relatively brief operational career of ten years. The B-58 was succeeded in its role by the smaller, swing-wing FB-111A
Stick and rudder skills allied to partial panel skills certainly saved their butts!Pontius Navigator wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 8:15 amIt was an amazing aircraft for the time, individual crew escape modules, astro tracker for navigation and a one - piece instrument panel.
On one flight, post maintenance, as the pilot rotated the panel went dark and every instrument stopped. The only thing still working was turn and slip.
The Nav had basic instruments such as ASI and altimeter and the pair managed to recover the situation. The pilots panel had been removed during maintenance and replaced but the 4 screws securing the panel had not been tightened. All instruments were connected through butt connectors.
I think the pilot discovered he could get it working by pushing it forward.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/ ... ries-87666However, the Hustler’s small size created one of its biggest shortcomings for a jet designed to penetrate Soviet airspace — an unrefueled combat radius of only 1,740 miles. This would require the flying branch to base its Hustlers in Europe or devote substantial numbers of tankers for aerial refueling.
The short range was a serious concern in the Air Force, according to the 2012 book Rearming for the Cold War, 1945-1960 by retired USAF Col. Elliott V. Converse III.
Lt. Gen. Curtis LeMay of Strategic Air Command disliked the bomber and wanted the planes kept away from SAC. “In 1955, Maj. Gen. John P. McConnell, LeMay’s director of plans, commented wryly that as long as the Soviet Union and not Canada was the enemy, range would matter,” Converse wrote.
To make matters worse, the bomber was mechanically complicated, expensive — three times as much to operate than the B-52 — and difficult to develop. To redesign the fuselage into the “coke bottle” forced delays in the program and an increase in costs.
The number of planned B-58s changed — the Air Force would end up buying 116 Hustlers, a third of what the flying branch wanted. And because the bomber traveled so fast, the Air Force needed a new navigation and bombing system — the Sperry AN/ASQ-42 — which proved most troublesome of all to develop.
The J79 engine ran into problems, as did the braking system and ejection seats, the latter of which Convair ultimately swapped out for ejectable pods. “Despite the several speed records that it established, the B-58 may not have been worth its high cost,” Converse wrote.
More than anything else, two factors ultimately doomed the Hustler. The first was the development of better Soviet surface-to-air missiles in the 1950s culminating in the May 1960 shootdown of a high-flying U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers. The weapon, an S-75 Dvina — known by NATO as the SA-2 Guideline — could reach thousands of feet higher than the B-58’s maximum operating altitude.
One solution was to fly low, but flying low also means flying slow given the heavier air. Not only did that defeat the purpose of the Hustler’s design, the plane handled poorly at lower speeds. Twenty percent crashed.
The S-75 (Russian: С-75; NATO reporting name SA-2 Guideline) is a Soviet-designed, high-altitude air defence system, built around a surface-to-air missile with command guidance. Following its first deployment in 1957 it became one of the most widely deployed air defence systems in history. It scored the first destruction of an enemy aircraft by a surface-to-air missile, with the shooting down of a Taiwanese Martin RB-57D Canberra over China on 7 October 1959 that was hit by a salvo of three V-750 (1D) missiles at an altitude of 20 km (65,600 ft). This success was credited to Chinese fighter aircraft at the time to keep the S-75 program secret.
This system first gained international fame when an S-75 battery, using the newer, longer-range, higher-altitude V-750VN (13D) missile was deployed in the 1960 U-2 incident, when it shot down the U-2 of Francis Gary Powers overflying the Soviet Union on May 1, 1960. The system was also deployed in Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when it shot down another U-2 (piloted by Rudolf Anderson) overflying Cuba on October 27, 1962, almost precipitating a nuclear war. North Vietnamese forces used the S-75 extensively during the Vietnam War to successfully defend Hanoi and Haiphong against US bombing.