On Veterans Day, Nov 11th, 1956 Convair's revolutionary delta wing B58 "Hustler" supersonic bomber took to the skies for the first time, piloted by B. A, Ericson.
Zeno,
Zeno's Warbird Video DriveIn http://zenoswarbirdvideos.com
See this film and five more on our "Record Breaker: The B58 Hustler Story DVD Volume 2" DVD http://bit.ly/TqefHs. Includes a TB58 manual too!
You'll see both the low and high speed taxi testing, including front wheel lift off, that proceeded the B58's first flight, delivering excellent footage of the silvery prototype from a number of angles. The first flight takes the aircraft to Mach .7 at 20,000' and back down again without a hitch and you'll see it all in this memorable color film I digitally restored the audio and video.
A pilot once said of the Convair B58, "She looked like she was breaking the sound barrier just sitting on the tarmac."At Mach 2 +, the B58 wasn't just one of the fastest bombers of her day, she was one of the fastest military planes period.  A first cousin of the hot "century series" of fighters, the delta winged "Hustler' medium bomber combined outstanding performance with a striking, javelinlike profile that spawned a mystique that survives to this day. In the early 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, in just two years the B58 captured 14 speed and performance records, many previously held by  Soviet aircraft. She was not only capable of extended 700 mph onthe deck missions at 500 feet (then unheard of for a bomber and without the advantages of today's ground hugging radar or flybywire) she also set altitude and climb records. The B58 was capable of doing whatever was necessary to invade enemy air space.