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B-58 Hustler at Davis Monthan Question


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I was in high school in San Antonio when the Hustlers were scrapped. My father worked as a civilian at Kelly AFB back then. He brought home a newsletter from AFLC or whatever it was called at the time that had a photo of a big pile of shredded metal with a couple of men standing off to one side looking at it. The caption said it was the remains of a B-58. It went on to say the airplane had skin panels made of aluminum skins bonded to honeycomb cores with some kind of silver solder, and that by shredding the airplanes they were able to recover several pounds of silver from each jet.

It was the first I knew the B-58s had been retired. My father had been an Active Duty officer stationed at Carswell AFB in the early 60s and I remember watching B-58s taking off and landing there. I even saw one land with one main landing gear only half extended. I'll never forget the shower of sparks when it slid on the outboard nacelle, then as it came to a stop seeing the three hatches open and the crew slide down ropes to the runway then hit the ground running. I last saw a B-58 fly in 1969 when we'd just returned from being stationed in Ankara, Turkey and passed through Ft Worth on the way to visit my grandparents in Texas before heading to my father's next duty station. A B-58 passed over us leaving a dark smokey trail, and was it LOUD!! I had no idea they were being retired. Seeing that newsletter saying they were being scrapped was very upsetting to me, the B-58 was easily my favorite airplane.

Edited by Scott R Wilson
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