Forum: Military Aircraft of the Cold War

Which of these would win in a race across the Atlantic? The fastest commercial aircraft or the fastest production bomber?

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Concorde since it wouldn't have to slow down to refuel. The B-58 wouldn't be able to maintain it's dash speed long enough to cross the Atlantic.

Well, the B-58 did go from New York-Paris in 2 hours and 19 minutes, which is an average speed of over 1000 mph, so I think it would be close. I also think if it was a longer race, the B-58 would probably definitely win, because the Concorde can't refuel in midair while the Hustler can. Also, the SR-71 had to refuel to cross the Atlantic, but could still arrive a full hour before the Concorde could.

Did you know that Convair (a division of General Dynamics back then) once boasted that they had the fastest bomber (B-58 ), fastest fighter (F-106) and fastest airliner (CV-880) in the world? I remember seeing a picture of all three flying in formation back when I was a kid. I remember flying from Lackland to Chanute on a CV-990 airliner.

[Edited by moderator to fix the B-58 and Cool

issue]

Hmmmm--that was supposed to be B-58!

SixerViper,

I hope you don't mind, I went ahead and fixed that little Cool

issue in your post Wink

. Just remember (and your're by far not the first or only one to do it) that 8 + ) right together makes Cool

Those are all planes that are just plain fast, but the Blackbird is stupid fast.

sprstdlyscottsmn wrote:

Those are all planes that are just plain fast, but the Blackbird is stupid fast.

That is so true. It's unbelievable that we made a plane that:
1. looks like something out of star wars
2. made from titanium bought from our enemy, the ussr
3. cruised for hours at speeds faster than a bullet
4. and of course, was designed over 45 years ago with a slide rule

It is definitely one of the greatest, if not the greatest, accomplishment in aviation history. Still by far the fastest of all time. (unless there is something out in the Nevada desert flying at Mach 6, which recent articles hint at.)

sprstdlyscottsmn wrote:

4. and of course, was designed over 45 years ago with a slide rule

Well, not quite. There were computers then, I assure you. Large, very slow relative to today, no screens (paper output) etc. And before those computers, calculators were used extensively. They were not the hand held variety, but were electro-mechanical desk top units. They could do four-function math and a few could do square roots, although very very slowly. Slide rules weren't really used much, mostly for equations with trig functions.

Jeff--thanks for the fix. I must have fat-fingered something.

sprstdlyscottsmn wrote:

Those are all planes that are just plain fast, but the Blackbird is stupid fast.

I read a pilot report in Avation Week & Space Technology once that led me to believe that flying the SR-71 at high mach numbers was a real bitch. There is a lot of engine management going on and the pilot is quite busy. This seems to be borne out by the online version of the 1SR-71A-1 T.O. that is available online at www.sr-71.org . I was blown away when I saw it available, but it looks like every dash one I've ever seen as far as layouts go.

Those engines have lots and lots of sucker doors, bleeder doors, spike management options, etc, etc, etc.

SixerViper wrote:

Did you know that Convair (a division of General Dynamics back then) once boasted that they had the fastest bomber (B-58 ), fastest fighter (F-106) and fastest airliner (CV-880) in the world? I remember seeing a picture of all three flying in formation back when I was a kid. I remember flying from Lackland to Chanute on a CV-990 airliner.

[Edited by moderator to fix the B-58 and Cool

issue]

I've seen that same picture Smile

I'm just sad that both aircraft here are now only seen in museums.

Funny, at the Road Runners reunion I was talking with Jim Eastham who flew the YB-58 (Snoopy - the one with the long nose that was used for launch testing of the AIM-47 missiles), A-12, YF-12, and SR-71. I asked him how flying the Hustler compared to flying the Blackbirds. He said that after flying the Hustler, anything was a piece of cake Laughing

!

Forum: Military Aircraft of the Cold War

Concorde vs. B-58