The B-58 Hustler with pilot, navigator/bombardier and the defensive systems operator

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Harpyness@reddit

Pretty to look at, nightmare for crew apparently.

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asmallercat@reddit

Just strapped in a supersonic metal tube with no windows for the two non-pilot crew. Horrible.

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cat_prophecy@reddit

Taking cues from the Brits. They must have hated their navigators and bombardiers. The whole V-series of bombers crammed them into dark holes they couldn't even easily eject from.

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tigernet_1994@reddit

It’s traditional. The Lancaster had exit doors that were a bit too small and made it hard to bail out from.

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HH93@reddit

they couldn't even easily eject from.

'cos they didn't even have Ejection Seats

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evilmercer@reddit

If everything went to plan they would just be ejecting out into overlapping mushroom clouds anyways.

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Maro1947@reddit

It's because the radar tech has such dim screens

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cat_prophecy@reddit

That would certainly make sense. Why couldn't they just...make it brighter or give them a window shade?

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Things were moving so fast back then than the life time of these airframes was less than a decade at most. So they aerodynamic developments were moving faster than the rest of equipment (digital tech hadn't taken off fully yet, put intended).

So it was just easier to ghetto rig it and call it a day. Plus the perspective of the time was that nuclear war was about break out at any time, so stuff like crew comfort or survivability wasn't even a consideration. Since the expectation was that the flights were going to be a one way ticket to drop nukes.

That's why in the Vulcan, for example, they didn't even bother to give the 60% of the crew ejection seats. They most definitively weren't expecting that air frame to serve for decades, for example.

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Raguleader@reddit

I think it was just the limitation on screen technology of the time. All-weather fighters in the 1950s had the GIB sticking his face into a hood kind of like Spock's science scope so he could read the radar scope, in a plane designed to be used at night. Trying to keep your head in that position pressed into the hood while the pilot was maneuvering a jet interceptor must have been an interesting ergonomic experience.

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Foreign_Athlete_7693@reddit

The V bomber cabins were a tad more spacious than this😂(even if they were shared by all 5)

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Kodiak01@reddit

The B-58, however, used encapsulated ejection seats.

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UNC_Samurai@reddit

Bear-tested, USAF-approved

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ZehAngrySwede@reddit

Looks like the navigator has a tiny 7x7 window to look out of. Just enough to let him know if things are going terribly wrong or not.

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whooo_me@reddit

"Up = blue, Down = green? We're good..."

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Illustrious_Bet_9963@reddit

Keep the blue side up……

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turlian@reddit

"Fuck, we're over water."

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BehindEnemyLines1@reddit

They both do. Last widow is behind his leg.

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LazaroFilm@reddit

Last window with a wing view. Wing = good no more wing = bad.

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G-I-T-M-E@reddit

Kinky. But why a widow?

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Jessie_C_2646@reddit

Those things killed too many flight crew.

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ballsack-vinaigrette@reddit

Getting her through the little pulley system was definitely an engineering challenge.

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Ok-Rough-2235@reddit

🤣🤣🤣🤣

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ZehAngrySwede@reddit

Ah, can barely see the flashing of he window by his knee.

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ziper1221@reddit

How could he possibly take sextant readings out of that?

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Lando_Lee@reddit

I think the back seat has it too, just covered by the guys leg.

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BehindEnemyLines1@reddit

They both have windows.

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asmallercat@reddit

lol you’re right I missed the tiny squares

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DFWPrecision@reddit

Barf bags are a must

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Swisskommando@reddit

Not as bad as the sea vixen. Little hole next to the pilot for the radar operator

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HH93@reddit

The various mks of Canberra were no better either.

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Harpyness@reddit

Another gorgeous jet. However I wouldn't want to be in the coal bunker haha.

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jdmgto@reddit

They retrofitted the escape capsules into the cockpits and getting in, dunno how you do it in full flight kit.

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Jessie_C_2646@reddit

Carefully :P

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Cetun@reddit

Pilot has shit to look at with the window and all the controls. Navigator at least has some job to do that can keep him busy. Literally all the DSO had to do was if a target aircraft showed up on his targeting scope, he would select it and the gun would automatically track and fire at it without any other input needed.

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Jessie_C_2646@reddit

The DSO did all the systems work that a flight engineer would do on any other aircraft. In many ways, he was the businest of the crew members. And he also had to do the ECM and shoot the tail gun (by shoot I mean press the button that turned the automatic system loose to fire at anything worth firing at).

I can't find it now, but in the early days of the interwebs, there was a website run by a DSO who used it for stories of his time in the B-58 plus a few fictional scenarios of what would have happened if the B-58 fleet ever went to war. He told one story of a patrol over Seattle where he spent a few hours jamming a taxi company's radio frequency just because he was bored and feeling mischevious.

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jorgepolak@reddit

They had a looped string, basically a clothesline, going between the three positions to pass each other paper notes in case the coms went down. The three positions were completely isolated, like three little tombs.

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devolute@reddit

"Get in lads, whaaay. We're all going to heaven!"

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Someonenoone7@reddit

Last man on the right has this "I hate this hell bucket" posture.

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DemonsSouls1@reddit

My favorite plane

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Patient-Jelly-8752@reddit

Now this is cool. Thank you so much

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Professor_Lavahot@reddit

Trying to find it, the National Museum of the Air Force used to have some great 360deg camera views from each of these seats.

At armrest height the crew had a little pulley system to winch notes? playing cards? pictures of assorted ladies? back and forth

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Elias_Fakanami@reddit

Paul Stewart (a YouTube plane nerd) did a full tour of this plane that included climbing into each seat to show the cramped conditions.

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Lonely_Programmer_42@reddit

Or snacks, got to have a snack line

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yoweigh@reddit

When they refurbished NASA's Apollo control room a while back, they discovered ancient ham sandwiches in the pneumatic tube system.

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Potato-Engineer@reddit

The first sushi conveyor belt restaurant was built in 1958. These B-58s were ahead of the curve!

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Brainchild110@reddit

No windows for you, little backseat bitches

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TwoAmps@reddit

Skunk works gets all the attention, but over the years, Convair certainly came out with some innovative, way out there aircraft.

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T-wrecks83million-@reddit

What’s the little Bull 🐂 nose art say? “El Toro De Moro”??
The M word is difficult to read with the chipped paint.

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SutttonTacoma@reddit

The Wikipedia article is interesting. There was no bomb bay, just a single nuke strapped to the belly.

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Jessie_C_2646@reddit

And later on, 4 more nukes tucked in under the wing roots.

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tudorapo@reddit

a nuke/fuel tank combo.

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7stroke@reddit

Pilot and losers

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circumburner@reddit

:(

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SaltyDogBill@reddit

My local air museum recently got one. Without the weapon pod… and sitting so high on its gear… she sleek and fast looking as all hell.

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DWMoose83@reddit

I'd recognize that SAC emblem anywhere. Dad was a MSgt at a SAC training base.

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Sonic_Is_Real@reddit

The design is very human

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isaac32767@reddit

When I was a kid in the 60s in SoCal, you'd hear a sonic boom now and then. I imagine a lot of them were from this plane. Probably a factor in its early retirement.

It's interesting that the ultra-advanced B-58 only flew for about a decade, while the less sophisticated B-52 is still in use 70 years after it was first deployed.

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Jessie_C_2646@reddit

The problem is losing an engine. Lose an engine in a B-52 and your problem is that your fuel will last a little longer because only 7 engines are burning it. Lose an engine in a B-58 and everything goes sideways , the tail rips off and you end up having a really, really bad day.

Also it was ridiculously expensive to operate and maintain. One B-58 cost the same as several B-52s per flight hour. This was at the time when they were losing a bunch of F-105s per day over North Vietnam. The budget had to lose something.

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PicnicBasketPirate@reddit

What were the defensive systems?

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blorbschploble@reddit

At the time, Mach 2 dash at 50,000+ feet.

SA-2 changed that.

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Raguleader@reddit

ECM, tail gun, and the throttle lever.

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Bon-Bon-Boo@reddit

A tail mounted 20mm rotary canon.

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smokepoint@reddit

Shitloads of ECM and a radar-directed 20mm Vulcan tail-gun.

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legal_stylist@reddit

Well, beyond electronic warfare detection and jamming, there was a radar directed 20 mm Gatling tail gun to operate.

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smokepoint@reddit

Yow. Somehow I had the idea that that was only how you'd leave on a bad day, not the normal ingress route. There's not much room to do it any other way, though.

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