"Tall Man 55": B-58 Hustler supersonic bomber propaganda movie aimed at scaring the Soviets during the Cold War

Jun 20 2012 - 4 Comments
By David Cenciotti

The following is an interesting ’60s propaganda movie about the Convair B-58 Hustler whose purpose was to raise the awareness of the Americans about the U.S. Air Force operations (“jet noise is the sound of freedom” kind of message) and, above all, to scare the Soviets with footage of the Strategic Air Command‘s first supersonic bomber capable of Mach 2.

Although it may seem ages away, the basic procedures used half a century ago during the Cold War are more or less the same that would be used today by the current U.S. fleet of heavy bombers.

H/T to Leonardo Ferrazzi for the heads-up

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  • Joseph Volpendesta

    When I was a young pup, there were B-58s attaqched to the 305th Bombardment Wing at Bunker hill AFB (now Grissom AFB) in Indiana. I lived in a northern Chicago suburb and it was fairly common to hear a sonic boom as these aircraft carried out training flights. We rarely saw the B-58s as Air force regulations in those days banned supersonic flight below 35,000 ft, occassionally a contrail.
    This is why I* find it amusing when your column ran an article on the outcry generated in Britain when two RAF Typhoons were scrambled for a suspected hijacking and the aircraft went supersonic.

    • Hi Joseph,
      you have so many interesting stories to tell us. When are you going to write something for this blog?

  • Richard Clements

    Amazing to think the B-58 was only in service for 9 years

  • Ziya

    RAF and Nazis also took propaganda films during WW-II. Here is one of those films by RAF. http://m.youtube.com/index?client=mv-google&desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US&rdm=m2rht13d8#/watch?v=Rt-B6i90X3w