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Cranston Fine Arts Aviation Art and Artists Modern Era Pilot Signatures United States D to L Dietz, William

William C Dietz

Bill Dietz' career in the aviation/ aerospace industry spanned fifty-three years. He has been personally involved in the development of fourteen different U.S. military programs, including the B-58 Hustler. He was initially assigned to the B-58 program as Project Engineer, but was later promoted to Chief of B-58 Projects. The B-58 was a unique program. It was one of the first aircraft to be developed for the Air Force under a Weapon systems contract. Bill also served as the Chief Engineer on the F-111 development program, and as Vice President and Chief Engineer on the F-16 program. He also served as Vice President and Program Director for the AGM-86 Cruise Missile. At the time of Bill's retirement in 1993 he was Vice President and Senior Technical Staff Member at the Lockheed Fort Worth Company. Bill has served on numerous technical boards and committees, including the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, and the NATO Advisory Group for Aerospace Research and Development. For his service with the former organization, Bill received the Exceptional Civilian Service Award. Bill is a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, which presented him the prestigious Reed Award in 1977 in recognition of his leadership role in advanced aircraft design. In 1982, Bill was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. He died on 31st July 2006.

William C Dietz - Signed Aviation Art

Arctic Hustler by Stan Stokes. 3 of 5 editions available. All 2 editions featuring up to 2 additional signatures are available. £35.00 - £120.00

Text for the above items :

Arctic Hustler by Stan Stokes. No bomber made so definite a break with the past as the Convair B-58 Hustler. Reversing the trend towards ever-larger bombers, the worlds first supersonic bomber, the B-58, was ordered by the Air Force in 1954. This was also the final year of the production of the huge Convair B-36. From the beginning of its operational career, the Hustler set a string of performance records that may never be matched by another military bomber. Alone in its class, the B-58 could fly faster than twice the speed of sound, pinpoint targets from an altitude of 60,000 feet, and avoid radar detection in low level supersonic flight. Powered by four General Electric J79 engines delivering 15,600 pounds of thrust each, the Hustler was faster than any other bomber, and had a range of 4,500 miles without aerial refueling. The B-58s electronic bombing and navigational systems were ten times more precise than those on earlier bombers. To reduce drag the aircrafts designers utilized the area rule principle in the design, giving the Hustler its sleek shape. Very strong honeycomb skin material was utilized to further reduce weight and allow the bomber to withstand the high temperatures of supersonic flight. Utilizing its very strong, but extremely light weight design, a fully loaded B-58 (after in-flight refueling) would carry a gross weight equal to seven times the aircrafts dry weight. It first entered service in 1960. In September of 1962 a B-58 piloted by Fitzhugh Fulton carried an 11,000 payload to the incredible altitude of 85,000 feet, breaking the world record. With a length of 99 feet and a wing span of 57 feet, the Hustler was a small aircraft compared to the B-36. Hustlers were operated by three-man crews, including a pilot, navigator-bombardier, and defense systems operator. Each crewmen had his own cramped cockpit with its own ejection system. The B-58 was unique in that it lacked an internal bomb bay. Instead all weapons were carried in an externally mounted under-fuselage pod. The B-58 could carry a weapons load of up to 19,500 pounds. The pod could also be used to carry additional fuel. Some B-58s were equipped to carry a stand-off rocket propelled weapon (a precursor of todays modern cruise missiles) with a range of 160-miles. The Hustler utilized the delta wing configuration of Convairs fighters (F-102 & F-106.) Although the B-58 was conceived as a very high altitude long-range bomber capable of penetrating Soviet air space, it became apparent during the 1960s that Soviet ground-to-air missile technology had improved to the point that high altitude, high speed bombers would be very vulnerable to interception. This revelation led to both a re-focusing of the B-58s role to a lower altitude, radar-beating, mission, and a faster phase-out of this aircraft from service than was originally planned. This was somewhat influenced by the aircrafts price tag which was four times that of a B-52, and ten times that of a B-47. As depicted in Stan Stokes painting entitled Arctic Hustler, a B-58A flying out of Elmendorf AFB in Alaska is put through its radar-beating paces in the mid-1960s.