Description

43rd Bombardment Wing B-58 Hustler Patch

Enjoy this beautifully embroidered 43rd Bombardment Wing B-58 Hustler Patch.  You love the quality and style this throwback patch embodies.

• 4 inch
• Embroidered
• Sew On
• US Veteran-Owned Business
• Reproduction

Hustler operations at Carswell Air Force Base

The 43rd Bombardment Wing moved to Carswell Air Force Base without personnel or equipment on 15 April 1960. At Carswell, it was manned and equipped from the 3958th Operational Test and Evaluation Group and the 6592nd Test Squadron of Air Research and Development Command, which were discontinued.[5]

The wing immediately began training crews on the Convair B-58 Hustler, the world’s first supersonic bomber, and, it began participating in Category III testing (operational testing) of the Hustler in August.[5] The 43rd was the first USAF B-58 wing.

Aircraft number 59-2436, the first fully operational Hustler equipped with all tactical systems, was delivered to the 43rd on 15 March. On 23 March a test-unit B-58A (55-0671), remained airborne for 18 hours 10 minutes while averaging an airspeed of 620 mph over 11,000 miles. This was apparently the longest-lasting single flight ever by a B-58. The 43rd received deliveries of new aircraft from Convair throughout the year, the last being in December 1960.

From March 1960 to July 1961, the 43rd operated a combat-crew training school for B-58 aircrews, and, from July 1962 until late 1969 it served as one of two SAC B-58 wings with a strategic-bombardment mission. During the 1960s the wing established world-flight speed records in the B-58, beginning on 12 January 1961, when it set six international speed and payload records on a single flight, five of which were held by the Soviet Union. Three of these records lasted only two days, when they were broken by another 43rd Hustler, which flew over a 1,000 km closed course with a payload of 2,000 kg at an average speed of 1284.73 mph, simultaneously breaking the 1,000 kg and no payload records.[a 4] The crew on the second flight was awarded the Thompson Trophy.[6]

On 29 May 1961, a wing B-58 flew from New York to Paris in 3 hours, 14 minutes, and 45 seconds, establishing a new transatlantic speed record of 1,089.36 mph, earning the crew the MacKay Trophy. On 5 March 1962, a wing B-58 flew from Los Angeles to New York at an average speed of 1,214.65 mph. It flew from Los Angeles to New York and back in 4 hours, 41 minutes, and 15 seconds. This earned the crew another MacKay Trophy and the Bendix Trophy.[6]

The wing, which had been prevented from being declared combat-ready by the B-58’s teething problems, was finally declared as such in August 1962. In response to the Cuban Missile Crisis, the wing was placed on alert in October 1962.

By the mid-1960s, the B-58 had become a fairly effective weapons system. By the end of 1962, USAF crews had made over 10,500 flights and logged 53,000 hours (1150 of them supersonic, including 375 at Mach 2). Initially, all B-58 training was conducted by the 43rd’s combat-crew training school. From 1960 through 1964, this unit fulfilled the requirements of both its parent 43rd Bomb Wing and the second B-58 wing, the 305th Bomb Wing. In August 1964, the 305th activated its own CCTS. The wing also controlled an air-refueling squadron from August 1964.

Hustler operations at Little Rock Air Force Base
In September 1964, the 43rd Bomb Wing relocated to Little Rock AFB, Arkansas.

The active service life of the B-58 was destined to be rather short. Phaseout of the B-58 fleet was ordered by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in December 1965, since it was felt that the high-altitude performance of the B-58 could no longer guarantee success against increasingly sophisticated Soviet air defenses. Although SAC had never been happy with the relatively limited range of the B-58 and felt that the Air Force, through congressional pressure, had forced the B-58 on them, the aircraft had gone through a long gestation period during which many bugs had been wrung out of the system, and it was now thought to be a valuable and effective weapons system. Consequently, SAC pressed the Defense Department for the retention of the B-58, at least until 1974. However, the decision of 1965 was to stand.

Another factor was the B-58’s relatively high cost as compared to the B-52 and B-47. The unit cost of the B-58 was 33.5-million dollars as compared to nine-million for the B-52 and three-million for the B-47. In addition, the B-58 was quite costly to maintain. The cost of maintaining and operating two B-58 wings equaled the cost of maintaining six B-52 wings.

The first B-58 to go to the “boneyard” was 59-2446 which flew to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base on 5 November 1969. Once underway, the B-58 retirement program moved relatively rapidly. The retirement was completed on 16 January 1970.