Jimmy Stewart and the Mach 2 Cold War Bomber That Terrified the Soviets.

LA to New York in two hours. Then they turned around and raced the sun back — and won by 41 minutes.

The Convair B-58 Hustler was the world's first supersonic bomber — a Mach 2 monster that set 19 world records, grabbed five major aviation trophies, and ripped records away from the Soviet Union at the peak of the Cold War.

But stolen speed records were the least of the damage the B-58 was designed to inflict on the Russians. The Hustler was built specifically to overwhelm the Soviet air defenses of 1960: leaving Russian fighters of the era in the rearview, and impossible to track with early surface-to-air missiles. For a brief window of time in the middle of the cold war, before ICBM's rendered deep penetration bombers obsolete, the B-58 kept Russian defense planners awake at night with visions of Mach 2 bombers laying waste to targets across the USSR.

This rare Cold War-era film is hosted by Jimmy Stewart. As many of you know, he wasn’t just an Oscar-winning actor, but also an 8th Air Force vet, who set aside his film career to serve as the Operations Officer with a B-24 Bomb Group, flying many combat missions over Nazi Germany. At the time of this film, he was a Brigadier General in the Air Force Reserve, and personally flew in the B-58. Leaning on his experience, Stewart walks you through every record-shattering flight, from the Bendix Trophy run to the legendary transatlantic "Lindy Hop" that touched down on the exact spot where Lindbergh parked the Spirit of Saint Louis.

This video is digitally enhanced to 4K from our archive. We're working on new original content right now — but we couldn't resist sharing this gem from the Documentary TV vault in the meantime.

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Видео Jimmy Stewart and the Mach 2 Cold War Bomber That Terrified the Soviets. канала Documentary TV