Just four complete B-36 Peacemakers survived the scrapping operations to the present day, these being the aforementioned B-36Js at the NMUSAF and Pima, B-36J 52-2217 at the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum in Ashland, Nebraska, and RB-36H 51-13730 at Castle Air Museum in Atwater, California. It is the latter example which is the subject aircraft of this profile. Convair RB-36H-30-CF Peacemaker 51-13730 was the 275th airframe constructed.
Just four complete B-36 Peacemakers survived the scrapping operations to the present day, these being the aforementioned B-36Js at the NMUSAF and Pima, B-36J 52-2217 at the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum in Ashland, Nebraska, and RB-36H 51-13730 at Castle Air Museum in Atwater, California. It is the latter example which is the subject aircraft of this profile. Convair RB-36H-30-CF Peacemaker 51-13730 was the 275th airframe constructed.
Castle Air Museum's Hustler is the seventh example to roll off North American's production line in Fort Worth, Texas. A pre-production airframe, YB-58A-1-CF 55-0666 flew for the first time on March 20th, 1958. As it's type prefix suggests, this Hustler served as a test aircraft with Convair, which fitted a YJ79-GE-5 jet engine on a special centerline pod. On November 8th, 1958, the aircraft flew for 32 minutes at a sustained Mach 2 velocity with its YJ79-GE-5 engines. On April 29th, 1959, the U.S. Air Force formally took '666 on strength, but the airframe remained with Convair for test and evaluation purposes. On May 1st, 1959, Convair converted the Hustler into YRB-58A configuration.
Castle Air Museum's Hustler is the seventh example to roll off North American's production line in Fort Worth, Texas. A pre-production airframe, YB-58A-1-CF 55-0666 flew for the first time on March 20th, 1958. As it's type prefix suggests, this Hustler served as a test aircraft with Convair, which fitted a YJ79-GE-5 jet engine on a special centerline pod. On November 8th, 1958, the aircraft flew for 32 minutes at a sustained Mach 2 velocity with its YJ79-GE-5 engines. On April 29th, 1959, the U.S. Air Force formally took '666 on strength, but the airframe remained with Convair for test and evaluation purposes. On May 1st, 1959, Convair converted the Hustler into YRB-58A configuration.