Vulture B.1 ---- (RAF B-58 Hustler), 1/72 **FINISHED PICS PG 14**

[AS.12]

Cracker!

Imagine using the serial XH558 on that to really confuse passers-by.

[NARSES2]

Also, how's about some Soviet "close but not the same at all, really" copy

Now there's an interesting thought.

Thing that gets me with that is the combination of a futuristic wing and engines with the undercarriage of spoked wheels and skids 

[steelpillow]

There is a wonderful quote from the real world.
A bystander, watching a Dunne aeroplane cavorting about the sky to demonstrate its manoeuvrability, remarked to Fairey, "I should like it better if it looked more like an aeroplane."
Fairey shot back the crushing rejoinder, "My dear sir, this is what an aeroplane looks like!"

[TheChronicOne]

Ohhh!!! It just got better! 


And thanks again, folks!

[TheChronicOne]

Another interesting picture. Some of the American members might recognize the lil dude on the side. . . ..

[PR19_Kit]

That pic brings home how daft the nosewheel was on a B-58.

It HAD to retract forwards while the pivot point slid backwards so that it didn't smite the weapon pod a mighty blow! 

[TheChronicOne]

Nutty, right! Having looked at them on the model, the main gear do some sliding action as well, elsewise they would smash into the fuselage upon retraction. All symptoms of the loooooong gear having to hold the plane up so high to compensate for the pod. It was one of the things I noticed after putting them on. There's no way they would fit without sliding. 

[PR19_Kit]

IIRC the main gear leg actually folds in half, half way up the leg, too. That's one COMPLEX set of gear! 

[TheChronicOne]

Ahh!!  Ok, Makes sense.. I was trying to reconcile it all and I was like, "There's no way this fits in there!!"  lol   Another interesting bit I noticed was that the big "pole" on them sits halfway outside, and halfway inside the gear bay and even some of the gear doors had half-round spaces on them so they could actually close. The folding bit........ that explains the "struts" that I snapped off and thus deleted from the gear (both of them). They were inboard and went from the "joint" down to where the tires are. I didn't know why they were there, at first they seemed to be overkill or redundant, and now they make sense. 

Man, the project is done, but still learning about it and interested in it. 

[lenny100]

found this   https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video;_ylt=AwrE1.As9bVb72gAOFhXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTByMjB0aG5zBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--?p=b-58+hustlers&fr=fennec#id=47&vid=cf2522d08f1965cae83f1ad7d260e405&action=view

[TheChronicOne]

Oh man, I love that. So satisfying!!! 

[Captain Canada]

She looks so good like that ! Sure would have made QRA fun for the boys eh ?

[Rheged]

Your Excellencies, Lords, Ladies, Gentlemen and sundry other amorphous beings. Inscribed below is the backstory associated with the Vulture B.1.  I am most indebted to the constructor of this excellent item for allowing me to add my work to his creation in styrene.

The Convair-Vickers Vulture B1.

The background
Following the passing of the McMahon act in 1946, the USA ceased overt nuclear cooperation with its former partners in the Manhattan Project, Canada and the UK. Despite this prohibition, Dr William Penney of the British "Tube Alloys" project continued to work as a scientific adviser to the American Atomic Energy Commission during 1947-48. His work was considered so vital to US nuclear development that it was reported he was offered US citizenship with prestigious  academic titles and considerable financial inducements  to continue as part of the ongoing nuclear weapons research.  Penney, however, chose to participate in the assembly of a team in May 1947 to develop a British nuclear weapon. In June of that year, he gathered his fledgling team in the library at the Royal Arsenal and gave a two-hour talk on the principles of the atomic bomb. Centred at Fort Halstead, the work proceeded on schedule. In 1950, the first bomb was expected to ready within two years, and would require a test. On 3 October 1952, under the code-name "Operation Hurricane", the first British nuclear device was successfully detonated off the west coast of Australia in the Monte Bello Islands.  Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was hoping to convince the US to change the McMahon Act, which prohibited sharing information even with the British, by demonstrating that the UK had the technology to make a thermonuclear weapon (an H-bomb), and he put Penney in charge of developing this bomb. The Orange Herald bomb was developed and was passed off as a thermonuclear bomb, when in fact it was only a boosted fission weapon in which very little of the energy came from fusion. The test of this weapon was successful in convincing the Americans to allow information sharing with the British.  Lewis Strauss, the Chairman of the U S Atomic Energy Commission, proposed in January 1958 that the President should be able to share nuclear information with allies that were making "substantial and material contributions to the national defense and security". Congress amended the Atomic Energy Acts of 1948 and  1954 in June 1958, and America and Britain again began sharing nuclear research under the 1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement. In actual fact, this merely regularised  the information exchange that had been going on non-stop since the first atomic bomb was tested.

Skybolt and the Vulture
One of the first  shared projects was the Skybolt programme.  Britain officially joined this programme in March 1960, but had actually been participating in the warhead design and development since 1958.  Blue Steel 2 was cancelled in December 1959 and "Phase 6" Avro Vulcan aircraft were to  be introduced carry six Skybolt missiles. Macmillan met Eisenhower in March 1960 and agreed the purchase 144 Skybolts for the RAF. In  return, British research was to be shared and the Americans were given nuclear submarine basing facilities in Scotland. The Skybolt missile experienced  considerable problems and  President Kennedy officially cancelled the program on 22 December 1962.  This grew into a major crisis, an emergency meeting between parties from the US and UK was called, leading to the Nassau agreement. Over the next few days a new plan saw the UK purchase the Polaris SLBM, but equipped with British warheads .The UK would thus retain its independent deterrent force. The Polaris, a much better weapon system for the UK, was a major "scoop" and has been referred to as "the bargain of the century".  The British Polaris force  SSBNs would  take over the nuclear deterrent role from the RAF's V bombers from 1968 onwards. This left a strategic nuclear gap in the UK defence system.
The US forward basing of nuclear submarines in Holy Loch was a vital immediate requirement of the Pentagon , as was British technical expertise, tritium from Chapel Cross nuclear power station in Southern Scotland and plutonium from Windscale in West Cumberland. In order to gain immediate access to these resources, the Kennedy administration offered a squadron of 12  Convair B 58 Hustler bombers on a 10 year loan to the RAF . After much brinksmanship on both sides and much soul searching  in the Pentagon and US Treasury Department the supply of  "several" W59 warheads was also agreed. The RAF was unhappy with the primary stage of the W59, which was potentially subject to accidental detonation when subject to mechanical shocks. A new design was rapidly adopted using a less sensitive explosive, known to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment as "Cleo".  This was also adopted by the USAF.   The  12 aircraft were  taken from USAF resources and flown to RAF  Fairford in March 1963 where they were formally handed over.  71 Squadron RAF was formed on 1st April of that year  at RAF Machrihanish. The 12 airframes were given random serials in the XH448 to XH470 series.   Vickers took UK design and maintenance authority for the aircraft, which became known in RAF service as the Vickers Vulture B1. This deal was accepted by the UK as a reasonable exchange for the British material supplied to the USA.

The Vulture B1 in service 
By September 1963, 71 Squadron was declared fully operational and incorporated in all NATO targeting plans.  Most of 71's training flights were undertaken over water to permit speeds in excess of Mach 1. Although originally designed for very high altitude, high speed strikes, the RAF did experiment with low level penetration  exercises.   BBC film does exist of a pair Vultures  at about 500 feet above Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite Lake as they transited  the English Lake District in October 1965. Vultures also acted as targets for English Electric Lightning fighters over the North Sea throughout their service.

Two specific events stand out in the RAF service of the Vulture.  In November 1967, When the Royal Navy was  running trials of HMS Resolution,  a pair of Soviet AGIs (spy trawlers) were regularly noted just outside UK territorial waters off Rathlin Island. From this position they could monitor the SSBN trials.  The AGI vessels were regularly overflown by RAF Shackleton aircraft at a minimum height of 1000 feet .  A formal Notice to Mariners was issued stating that low flying would take place in the area at 250 feet. Shackletons at 250 feet caused no problems for the Soviet AGI vessels but at the time that maximum speed trials were scheduled for HMS Resolution, six Vultures took  off from Machrihanish and at five minute intervals went supersonic over the spy trawlers at what the official report called "exceptionally low altitude". The resultant sonic overload and excess pressure damage to delicate instruments meant that the USSR gained no useable data. A Hastings Met Flight aircraft from Aldergrove  which was in the general area at the time reported the Vultures leaving a wake like a speedboat in the sea.  The second noteworthy  event was the RAF 50th anniversary flypast, when a large mixed formation of Vulcans, Vultures and Javelins flew over the Mall in London in a Greek letter Delta formation.

Three Vultures were lost in the course of their RAF service.  XH450 was written off after a heavy landing at RAF Binbrook. The aircraft had been diverted there after multiple systems failures whilst exercising with Lightnings of 5 Squadron in June 1966.  The airframe was stripped of all salvageable components and passed to the base fire service. The final remnants were taken away by a local scrap dealer in 1969.  XH461 was the victim of multiple bird strikes shortly after take off from Machrihanish in April 1967; the three man crew all ejecting safely. The wreckage was used for Royal Navy  anti submarine and minehunting exercises until destroyed by depth charge testing in 1974.  XH454 experienced an engine explosion in August 1969 whilst ground running. Two RAF engineers suffered burns but the airframe was burned out.

The B58 Hustler was withdrawn from  USAF service on 31st January 1970 , and the RAF informed that Convair would no longer provide support for the type after 31st December of that year. As the Polaris SSBN fleet was already  in commission, the Vultures  were no longer required as  operational bombers; as high speed targets they were still very useful. An agreement was reached that the Vultures would be run on until 1975 to provide target facilities for all NATO interceptor units, with funding from all member states. Six Vulture T2s operated from Scampton  from July 1970 to March 1975 when the aircraft left RAF service. Four were scrapped, one presented to the Scottish Museum of Flight at East Fortune and one to the RAF museum: this airframe is currently in store at Duxford.  The three Vultures that were not converted to T2 standard were attached to Boscombe Down for trials. One of these, XH469, was modified to take Rolls Royce Spey engines in place of the GE J79s.  No data has been released regarding these trials, but the Raspberry Ripple livery  Spey Vulture B3 was a regular visitor to RAF stations at West Freugh and Machrihanish.  By January 1977 the trials Vulture had all been scrapped.

[zenrat]

Good job Rheged.

[steelpillow]

Great backstory!

I believe I can fill in a little more on the Spey Vulture. XH469 had in fact been withdrawn from frontline service a year or so earlier. It was used for flight trials with dummies of some of the MUSTARD and other missiles, which I referred to in an early post in this thread. The actual MUSTARD dummies were sub-scale, for obvious reasons. When the space project was cancelled, the airframe had been too hacked about to attach its various payloads, for it to be refurbished as an operational warplane. Hence its choice for a second career as the re-engined B3.