Tuesday, 15 June 2010, 1900 hours
Mr. Jay Miller, International Aviation Historian and Photographer presented previously unpublished information and visuals of the Convair B-58 Supersonic Bomber at 3500 Camp Bowie Blvd, Fort Worth, Texas. There were about 150 people in attendance, mostly grey haired men who used to work for Convair, General Dynamics at the bomber plant. He showed some old film clips of the No. 1 B-58 first flights and the Air Launched Ballistic Missile (ALBM) tests based from Eglin AFB, Florida. The No. 1 B-58 launched the ALBM at Mach 1.46 and 2.0. , four launches total. The program was considered a success even though there were several problems. These test launches were conducted about 1958/59. I was the flight control technical rep operating in the control tower during the first flight that occurred during the afternoon of 11 November 1956. The meeting lasted over two hours, including free discussion, questions, and answers from the audience. We talked about the loss of test pilot Ray Tenhoff in 1960, the loss of B-58 No. 5 over Lawton, Okla, the development and test of the crew module with black bears as occupants during the test. A good time was had by all.
Mom said you spoke at a meeting, was this it?
ReplyDeleteYes, it was at this meeting that I added some information on the airplane flight control system and the escape capsule test program. I was in the control tower as the flight control systems representative for the first flight of the B-58.
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