We get asked about a B-58 tag more than anything else, by far. If you know military aviation, you know just how special this airplane is. The Hustler is a radical plane and has a very devoted following of airplane nuts. Hustler material is incredibly rare, and this tag is arguably the slickest thing we’ve ever released. It’s second on our dream sheet of air-breathing aircraft (the first we haven’t released, yet).
The B-58 was developed in the 1950s to replace the B-47. It was designed to fly high (mach 2) and fast to avoid Soviet missiles. The original design only carried a single bomb in a pod. Later mods to the aircraft included hardpoints to allow for greater capacity. Due to rapid advancements in Soviet surface-to-air missiles, the B-58 was forced to adopt a low-level attack penetration run, which drastically reduced its range and capabilities. This, along with its high operating cost, led to its early retirement. A total of 116 B-58s were made and 26 were lost in mishaps. The type was only operational for a decade.
Our B-58A tags were cut from a fuselage panel removed from aircraft 60-1122, which was scrapped in 1977. This is one of the largest fuselage panels off a known B-58 that I have ever come across for sale. The panel was located immediately forward of the cockpit, was painted black, and covered the Search Radar Modulation Unit.
The tags are offered in 3 variants: Thin, Thick, and Multi-material. The Thin and Thick tags are all aluminum. The Thin tags are about 1/8” thick and are flat. The Thick tags feature a full or partial aluminum honeycomb back. The Multi-material tags feature a front that is aluminum and composite. This composite area was in the center of the panel, and the etching on this area was brown/black. These are some of the most interesting tags we’ve made. All variants are laser etched with the same design. Many tags are fully covered in paint; others have areas where paint is missing. Some of the Thin tags have fastener holes. A video explaining each variant has been posted to our Facebook page.
This run is extremely limited at only 110 tags.