Talk:B-58 Hustler

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[edit] B-58 Hustler in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

Around 1965, third grade to fifth grade to me, my dad was a navigator on the B-58 aircraft at the Stategic Air Command (SAC) Little Rock (Arkansas) Air force Base (AFB). His main reason for switching from the B-52 he says was the ability to survive a crash (the ejection system). They held ping-pong tournaments. (I guess eye hand coordination was a factor.) I fished to help supply food, as my mother always complained there wasn't enough money for us five kids. I remember having a picnic lunch with us kids, my mother, and my father in his flight suit (including helmet with oxygen supply) with the B-58s in sight on the other side of a barbed wire fence on the flight line; with nuclear bombs that my father was to use to kill millions of people if he was ordered to do so. People that don't understand the cold war was a real war just don't understand. 4.250.138.177 01:09, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

Just adding a few more memories of this same era: In 1967-1969 (my first & second grade) my dad was a B-58 pilot stationed at LRAFB, and also was selected out of B-52 service (he couldn't fit in the cockpit of a U-2). I recall the same picnics at the Alert Facility described above. We initially lived on-base, where the engine tests were rumored to be timed to coincide with Gunsmoke, and where we always had to stand outside and watch the columns of black smoke and wonder whose aircraft didn't make it. One of the B-58's many unique features was its four engines with afterburners, used on takeoff for dramatic climb-outs and acceleration once at altitude. Afterburners are literally groundshaking. We moved to Squaw Island (probably now renamed), in North Little Rock prior to Nixon cancelling the B-58 program for good. It was a popular new subdivision for B-58 crews: I recall that my dad's DSO (defensive systems operator) lived three houses up the street, and the base commander lived a block or so away. Early one morning, my dad had to fly, and had been razzed the previous night for leaving the base commander's party early... at about 0700 hrs, he commenced to delay the full afterburner climb-out until he was directly over the subdivision. Twice. Quite the exciting morning in our neighborhood. I have to agree with the author above - the cold-war was a real war, and my dad fought it. He flew the Cuban Missile Crisis and three tours in Southeast Asia. His favorite aircraft during his career in the USAF was the B-58. Horseheaven 07:30, 10 January 2007 (UTC)H. Lippold

[edit] Name origins

An IP user claimed:

The B-58 was named "the Hustler" because of the recorded female voice used to warn crew members of trouble. The box that contained the recordings was called "the Bitch Box."

Color me skeptical. Can someone provide a credible reference for this? - Emt147 Burninate! 21:13, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

Agreed unlikely -- the name came from Convair engineering (most of whom wouldn't have heard the recorded voice) before the plane went into service, and "hustle" just means "to hurry". Kaleja 21:41, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dead link

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