\doc\web\2000\10\b58.txt ------- start of forwarded message ------- Path: brokaw.wa.com!nwnews.wa.com!news-chi-2.sprintlink.net!news-central.sprintlink.net!news-peer1.sprintlink.net!news-in-central.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!news.netins.net!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!cyclone2.usenetserver.com!news-out.usenetserver.com!cyclone1.usenetserver.com!e420r-sjo2.usenetserver.com.POSTED!not-for-mail Approved: sci-military-moderated@retro.com Organization: Sci Military Moderated Return-Path: news@namesrv2.mdc.net Delivery-Date: Thu Oct 19 18:29:29 2000 Delivery-Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 18:29:29 -0700 for ; Thu, 19 Oct 2000 18:29:27 -0700 (PDT) for ; Fri, 20 Oct 2000 01:19:29 GMT (envelope-from news@namesrv2.mdc.net) Thu, 19 Oct 2000 21:20:35 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from news) From: Bob Keeter Newsgroups: sci.military.moderated Subject: Re: B-58 vietnam plans Message-ID: <191020002119582634%bkeeter@netway.com> References: <8scvbs$tfi$1@brokaw.wa.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 8bit User-Agent: YA-NewsWatcher/4.2.6 X-NNTP-Posting-Host: xcom-79-18.mdc.net Lines: 43 Content-Length: 2005 X-Abuse-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Complaints-To: support@usenetserver.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 12:34:46 EDT Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 21:19:58 -0500 Xref: brokaw.wa.com sci.military.moderated:33422 In article <8scvbs$tfi$1@brokaw.wa.com>, wrote: > I read in a book about wild weasels that F-111s were > brought in to do what B-58 hustlers were supposed to do that > never showed up, but the photo caption gave no details. > > Anybody care to speculate what the USAF had in mind for the > B-58? Might they have made good all-weather bombers at > low level? > > Id trade in that book unless it had some really pretty pictures! ;-) The B-58 was a high speed, low payload, long range nuclear bomber. One BIG bomb, lots of gas in the world's biggest drop tank (also served as the "bomb bay"!) and four gas-hungry J-79 turbo-jet engines (same basic engine as the early F-4's and the F-104) Very futuristic looking airplane with performance to burn, but no conventional payload whatsoever. Nuking Hanoi might have worked fine for a diversion (hey, at M2 even a flyover would have had the glass men busy for months!), but thats about the limits of the utility in SE Asia Id think! IIRC, the bird had one really nasty habit. The engines were just not as mature and reliable as they became on the later F-4's. If you were in AB and supersonic, the slightest "burp" in either of the outboard engines would sling the aircraft into a flat spin. The rudder was not up to the side force so it departed the A/C and the plane went belly up to the velocity vector. That resulted in several crew kills and lots of airplane parts raining down all over the US midwest(the airplane disintegrates, so Ive been told and it happened in a heartbeat!)! If you could keep the engines running smooth it was a hell of a way to get from place to place. Held the transatlantic record for quite a few years until the SR-71 "officially" smoked it on the way to a European airshow. P.s. Would be real interested to hear from any B-58 cremen trained as Fast FACs! "Fast" its got! "Fac", it aint! Whatcha wanna bet "FFAC" is another acronym along the lines of "BUFF" and "SLUFF"? Regards bk ------- end of forwarded message -------