# 1960s USAF NEWSREEL: B-58 HUSTLER BOMBER, PROJECT EXCELSIOR / JOSEPH KITTINGER, ATLAS MISSILE 55544

This black and white film "Tomorrow The Stars", narrated by broadcaster Lowell Thomas, covers five early 1960s Air Force topics: the B-58 Hustler, Project Excelsior, preparing pilots for future space travel, solar research, and the Atlas missile. The Conair B-58 Hustler, the world’s first supersonic bomber, is capable of Mach 2 flight with four General Electric J79 engines and a delta wing. It had a 20mm multi-barrel cannon in the tail and could carry five conventional or nuclear weapons: four on pylons under the wings and one under the fuselage. It’s first flight was November 11, 1956. It opens with the underside of a B-58 (:22) as its three crewmembers—a pilot, a navigator, and a defensive systems operator—climb into separate cockpits (:038- 1:00 ) before taking off ( 1:01 - 1:25 ). In can be refueled in-air ( 1:26 - 1:33 ). The underside is shown during flight, making the five weapon pods clearly visible ( 1:35 - 1:50 ). Pilots study in an Air Force classroom ( 1:53 ). Airmen prepare planes as part of a composite air strike force deployment exercise ( 1:55 - 2:13 ). An overhead view of many planes on the field is shown ( 2:15 ). A pilot gets into the cockpit ( 2:18 ) and multiple planes taxi and take off ( 2:20 - 2:58 ) and are shown as a formation of 12 planes overhead ( 2:59 ). The “Welcome to the home of the 405th Fighter Wing” sign ( 3:15 ) is passed by B-58s ( 3:17 ). Project Excelsior’s Captain Joseph Kittinger Jr. suits up in a modified David Clark MC-3A partial…

- Kind: Newsreel
- Genres: News, Industrial and advertising
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/55544TomorrowTheStars)
- Licence or status: none stated by the archive
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/ia/55544TomorrowTheStars?play=1)