Quote:
|
This was the first bomber that could fly at Mach 2. It was designed as a nuclear attack bomber. Once the U.S.S.R. proved it could shoot down high flying fast aircraft, the B-58 was obsolete.
|
I had an uncle who was a command pilot with the first B-58 squadron, he loved the fact that it could break Mach 2, but he always claimed that when you need to make a turn, at just about any speed, "You needed air space roughly the size of Texas!"
It was designed for the high-altitude, high-speed penetration mission, and as it was discovered how good the Soviet ADA netwrok was, SAC attempted to use it for low-level delivery, a job that its delta wings were never designed for, that's what led to their retirement.