B-58.com - The B-58 Hustler Page

United States Air Force
Strategic Air Command
First Supersonic Bomber

"Peace is our Profession" -motto of the Strategic Air Command

Welcome to B-58.com, The B-58 Hustler Page. The purpose of this website is to honor the service and sacrifices of B-58 veterans and their families, and to document the remarkable history of the first supersonic bomber, the Convair/General Dynamics B-58 Hustler. This ground-breaking aircraft was instrumental in advancing aircraft design and helped to shorten the cold war.

Introduction

On November 11, 1956, the first prototype XB-58 Hustler taxied onto the active and rolled, swiftly driven by the deafening thunder of four General Electric J79 jet engines with full afterburners. With thirty tons of thrust, the Convair/General Dynamics XB-58 Hustler launched into the air with little delay. The crackling, deep-throated rumble of a Hustler taking wing was shocking to hear and equally dramatic to see; something not to be forgotten. Pushing physics to the limit, this act of flight was almost violent, yet somehow a thing of grace and awesome beauty. The people who designed, built, maintained, and flew in the Hustlers made America stronger and provided the deterrent that kept the nuclear "genie" in the bottle during those challenging years.

In 1968, I was thirteen years old and living with my family on Little Rock Air Force Base near Jacksonville Arkansas. My father, Lt./Col. Alex P. Brewer Jr., a Navigator/Bombardier who flew in B-58s, would occasionally take me with him when he was assigned evening airdrome officer duty. We rode in a blue, four-door Air Force Dodge pickup truck on the taxiway after sometimes sharing a dinner of sandwiches and French fries at the cafe in the Base Operations building. I vividly recall the taxiway marker lights stringing into the distance and the Hustlers landing and taking off, driven forward by those roaring afterburners.

It's been over a half century since a Hustler last took to the air but I will never forget that sound. The sound of the Hustler could be heard from late 1956 until early 1970. -Randy Brewer

It is with great sadness that I announce that my father Alex Brewer died peacefully in his sleep of age-related causes this morning, October 4, 2023. He was 96 years old. In memoriam

Alex Brewer's memoir A Navigator's Odyssey is now available from Amazon.com. If you enjoyed Alex's exploits under the 'War Stories' section of our website, you will love his new book.

From the day he takes his first

plane ride at age eight, Alex Brewer is hooked on flying. With a passion for flight matched by a desire to serve his country, Brewer joins the military during World War II at the age of seventeen.

By the time the Korean War erupts a few years later, Brewer is serving as a navigator/bombardier and flying dangerous missions on a near-daily basis. When the groundbreaking B-58 Hustler enters service in 1960, Brewer becomes the first B-52 radar navigator to be selected for air crew duty on the world's first supersonic bomber with a Mach 2 cruise capability.

A Navigator's Odyssey traces Brewer's twenty-six-year career in the U.S. Army Air Corps and the U.S. Air Force, as he rises in the ranks from a private to a lieutenant colonel. It provides a fascinating glimpse into what it's really like to be a crew member on the extraordinary airborne missions that kept the world safe during some of the most turbulent times in our nation's history.

A must-read for anyone who has an interest in aviation, history, or the unique stories that define the courageous heroes of the cold war.

Thanks to Del Laughery for kindly supplying color digitized images from slides of the prototype Convair B-58 Hustler taken in 1958, including the lovely image that we used for the masthead on this website.

George A. Haloulakos, CFA has written Call To Glory How the Convair B-58 Hustler Helped Win the Cold War. CALL TO GLORY is an economic reappraisal of the Convair B-58 Hustler nuclear strike bomber that demonstrates cost-benefit analysis of a capital asset should consider the impact of qualitative and behavioral factors, as well as the potential value that could be received from complementary follow- on investments. It is also shown that a military capital asset evaluated in terms of how it contributes to the overall portfolio along with how it affects ordered combinations in deployment of ordnance provides greater context for policy and decision makers. Available from: www.ucsandiegobookstore.com or phone order 858-534-7326.

A very special "Thank You!" to Steven Lasday for kindly providing color digitized versions of the Dash One flight manuals (both the 1959 and 1965 versions) in color. These are the best quality Hustler manuals we've seen. They can be browsed or downloaded from the contents menu above and are in .PDF format.

The best B-58 video compilation we have found is sold by Rocket Aero here: Rocket Aero. About the best quality images for footage this old. Nicely packaged for a reasonable price. Some clips that are not available elsewhere.

Be sure to check out our film page. Embedded for your viewing pleasure is the television documentary "Plane Simple: B-58 Hustler" in its entirity, produced the Military Channel.

After celebrating 20 years on-line, The B-58 Hustler Page has been recoded after relocation to commercial servers from Randy's private webserver which was taken out of service late in 2014. We hope you enjoy the new site, which features video clips to tell the story of the B-58 Hustler. We're looking forward to the next 20 years of honoring the people who served in the B-58 program.

Credit and Sources - THANK YOU!

We are thankful for the generosity of the many people who shared their knowledge and history of the B-58 program. Jay Miller's outstanding work documenting the B-58 program is chief among those who have written of the Hustler's history. His work along with other people's contributions have been used on this site to help tell the story of the Hustler. We are greatly in debt to Mr. Miller and the other sources listed here. Some stories and information are original creations of the website operators. Other information originally came from government sources.

Besides my father, Alex P. Brewer, Jr. (Lt./Col. USAF Ret.), the following individuals have provided information or images used on this website. If you own the rights to an image or other intellectual property used on this site and are not listed below, please contact Randy Brewer.

Jay Miller - 'Aerofax Aerograph Number 4' Technical information and photographs and initial inventory, Douglas H. Robinson - 'The B-58 Hustler' Technical information and photographs, Dick Dirga - Photographs, John Fry - Photographs, John Heck - Photographs, Paul Wulf - Photographs, Tom Surgalski - Photographs, nag's Gallery - Illustrations, NASA Dryden - Technical information and photographs, USAF Museum Photo Archives - Photographs, Joe Baugher - 'Encyclopedia of American Military Aircraft' History and development, Marcelle Size Knaack - 'Encyclopedia of US Air Force Aircraft and Missile Systems' Volume II Post-World War II Bombers 1945-1973 Office of Air Force History 1988, Ray Wagner - 'American Combat Planes Third Edition Doubleday New York' History and development, Rod Williams - Photographs, Rolando Ugolini - Illustrations, Del Laughery - Photographs, including the lovely image of 55-0660 that we used for the masthead on this website.