We love analyzing Cold War-era airplanes at 19FortyFive. The arms race between the Soviet Union and the United States yielded many interesting fighters and bombers that are still amazing to this day. Each side tried to outdo the other, as designers and engineers—some of the best and brightest of their generation—created the most advanced airplanes in the world.
One of the most consequential and powerful airplanes created during this time was the Convair B-58 Hustler. Just like its name implied, this jet was a hot rod, with many redeeming features that would give the U.S. Air Force a distinct edge against Soviet fighters and bombers.
The B-58 Hustler came about in the mid-1950s, when U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower was looking for ways to keep up with the Soviet Union’s delivery mechanisms for nuclear weapons. The United States had plans to “win” a nuclear war, even though no one was exactly sure how an atomic bomb exchange would play out.
Why not develop a fast, maneuverable bomber that could launch the latest innovation, the intercontinental ballistic missile?
This was an exciting idea. It could shorten the time available for Moscow to answer with its own retaliatory strike after the B-58 Hustler rained death and destruction on the Soviets.
The B-58 Could Definitely ‘Hustle’
The B-58 was the first supersonic bomber that could reach Mach 2 with a top altitude of 85,000 feet, and it made its maiden flight in 1956.
It had a delta-wing shape and carried one of the first “sophisticated inertial guidance navigation and bombing system, a slender ‘wasp-waist’ fuselage and an extensive use of heat-resistant honeycomb sandwich skin panels in the wings and fuselage,” according to The Aviation Geek Club.
What About Launching Satellites Into Orbit?
There were different ideas about the B-58, and many were intriguing. Some thought the B-58 should launch satellites into orbit, which would have been an incredibly valuable capability that would have sent the Soviets into a tizzy.
The only problem with that concept was that the Hustler would need to carry heavy boosters for launching. Designers and engineers weren’t sure they could make that happen on the B-58, which was a smaller bomber compared to others in the Air Force fleet.
Nuclear Strategists Were Drooling Over the Possibility of an Air-Launched ICBM
Others thought the B-58 could launch ground-strike rockets, and this idea had more potential. The B-58 wouldn’t have carried just any conventional rocket—technicians wanted it to carry a behemoth Minuteman ICBM and launch the munition from high altitude. This excited nuclear strategists.
Many were working at the RAND Corporation in California and wanted to use first-strike capabilities from different platforms to eliminate Soviet missile silos so the Soviets could not respond in force.
The B-58 could thus extend the range of the ICBM and could deliver the nuclear warhead quicker, creating a strong advantage in a nuclear exchange. But the ICBM weighed 68,000 pounds, with a smaller model that still weighed 51,000 pounds. How was the Hustler going to make this delivery?
The B-58 would need much stronger wings and a fortified fuselage. This was not going to be impossible, but it would challenge the engineers, who would need to make the adjustments in a short amount of time. The fuselage needed to be longer to carry more fuel.
A lengthened nose could also stabilize the airplane as it hurtled through the sky at high altitudes. The tail gun on the B-58 would have to be removed.
That’s not all. To make this idea work, the Minuteman itself had to be smaller, with the addition of a drag-reducing tail-cone to the missile, as well as four small fins. ICBMs also needed roll, yaw, and pitch controls.
The B-58 Hustler Had Safety Issues
Unfortunately, the B-58 had flight problems that doomed the program. At least four crashes in the early days of the B-58 program killed crew members. The B-58s were also expensive, and the Air Force found that it could “operate six wings of B-52s for the cost of two wings of B-58s”
Thus, the B-58 was never able to deliver an ICBM. It was an interesting idea that could have tipped the nuclear balance of power in America’s favor. It showed that U.S. engineers and designers were imaginative and highly motivated to beat the Soviets.This type of intellectual firepower would come to the forefront during the ensuing space race. Another aspect of the effort to arm an ICBM on the Hustler was the consideration of the notion that the United States could actually “win” a nuclear war—something that many Americans do not even think about these days. It was a real proposition in the 1950s and 1960s.
About the Author: Dr. Brent M. Eastwood
Brent M. Eastwood, PhD is the author of Don’t Turn Your Back On the World: a Conservative Foreign Policy and Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare plus two other books. Brent was the founder and CEO of a tech firm that predicted world events using artificial intelligence. He served as a legislative fellow for U.S. Senator Tim Scott and advised the senator on defense and foreign policy issues. He has taught at American University, George Washington University, and George Mason University. Brent is a former U.S. Army Infantry officer. He can be followed on X @BMEastwood.
