Welcome to Warbird Wednesday! Today we are visiting the first operational bomber that was capable of Mach 2 flight, the Convair B-58 Hustler. This American aircraft entered service in 1960 carrying one nuclear bomb, it was later upgraded to carry 5 nuclear weapons. As a strategic bomber, it was designed to fly at high altitudes but Soviet air defenses made it necessary to fly lower, making it hard to maneuver and very costly on fuel. It was later retired due to this need for frequent aerial refueling, its high maintenance costs and loss rate due to numerous accidents.