If the multiverse really does exist, then there’s got to be some universe in which that dumbass Robert McNamara (*spit*) was never appointed to Secretary of Defense, and thus was unable to foist his series of near disastrous ideas upon the United States military. I’d like to believe that in that alternate universe, the B-58 Hustler went on to a long and illustrious career before being replaced by something like a B-1 optimized for high speed low level penetration. It’s probably also a world where the Northrup F-20 Tigershark beat out the F-16, but that’s an argument for another day.
Anyway, for a glimpse of what might have been, and a snapshot of what once was, here’s a nicely restored film of the B-58’s first flight from 1956, complete with that classic post-war narration and music.
I saw one of the eight surviving B-58s at the Strategic Air Command (SAC) & Aerospace Museum near Omaha during a visit about twenty years ago. I really need to take the Terror Team back there for a visit soon.