How do you bend Titanium sheet metal?

bindian · Mar 3, 2015

MossRoad said:
I can only find reference to titanium screws in the B58.

That is one of my favorite planes. When I was a kid in the 60's we'd drive past Bunker Hill AFB (now Grissom AFB) and they had B58s in hangars right by the road. There is still one down there at an outdoor museum. I had a friend whose father was the navigator on a B58 when it won the Bendix Trophy in 1962. That aircraft is now at the museum in Dayton, OH. I believe it was the last "official" winner of the Bendix Trophy.
Factsheets : Convair B-58A Hustler

That record (Los Angeles to New York) took 2hr 1min and 39 seconds and stood for 28 years. In 1990, the SR71 flew L.A. to east coast (Virginia) in 64 minutes! However, it wasn't for the Bendix Trophy, just braggin' rights! :laughing:

MossRoad,
Maybe I am thinking of Stainless Steel. We have (or did have) a B-58 at the Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston. They are currently moving to the old Ellington Air Force Base near Nasa. A friend and coworker worked on B-58s. He is 76 now and still working! It was my favorite also. It's down fall was it was too small. Unlike the BUFF.................there wasn't room for modern avionics upgrades.
hugs, Brandi

Dr_Zinj · Mar 3, 2015

Considering what a good general workhorse the B-52 is, I'm almost surprised that someone isn't building new ones. On the other hand, the ones currently in service have probably had every single piece of them replaced at least once or twice during their depot rebuilds.

MossRoad · Mar 3, 2015

bindian said:
MossRoad,
Maybe I am thinking of Stainless Steel. We have (or did have) a B-58 at the Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston. They are currently moving to the old Ellington Air Force Base near Nasa. A friend and coworker worked on B-58s. He is 76 now and still working! It was my favorite also. It's down fall was it was too small. Unlike the BUFF.................there wasn't room for modern avionics upgrades.
hugs, Brandi

I think the reasons for the B58's downfall were many. Russia developed better radar and the thing performed horribly at high speed/low altitude. They had to slow it down when flying low, which made it an easier target and also ate the fuel economy. It was also a very unstable plane. Something like 20% of them were lost to accidents in 10 years. But man it sure is a beautiful machine. I look at it every time I drive past and remember them sitting in those hangars along US 31 waiting to go. We'd see them flying in an out once in a while, too. That was a long time ago.

dragoneggs · Mar 4, 2015

MossRoad said:
I think the reasons for the B58's downfall were many. Russia developed better radar and the thing performed horribly at high speed/low altitude. They had to slow it down when flying low, which made it an easier target and also ate the fuel economy. It was also a very unstable plane. Something like 20% of them were lost to accidents in 10 years. But man it sure is a beautiful machine. I look at it every time I drive past and remember them sitting in those hangars along US 31 waiting to go. We'd see them flying in an out once in a while, too. That was a long time ago.

Moss, you summed it up well IMO. An interesting bird no doubt but it missed its calling.

Beltman60 · Mar 4, 2015

Ti needs to be heated to about 550 deg F and bent on brake quickly
that being said it will catch fire easily if there are small splinters or chips
care must be taken as water will fuel the fire and become violent
I know this from experience (used to machine Ti casting and would take home chips and scrap casting for the fire pit)

varmint · Mar 4, 2015

Not as interesting as other posts, but I remember in the 90's that an industrial surplus dealer I was friendly with got a bunch of titanium crow bars cheap from a Russian company that was scrapping their submarines, and was trying to find a way to profit from the metals. Now I wish I had one.

bertsmobile · Mar 5, 2015

FWIW the best way to form Ti is with high energy rate deformation process like petro forges and explosive forming.
The Ti skins used on rckets were mostly explosive formed over concrete moulds using big voltage wires passing through bags of water.
Smaller items like dentures can be made using a plaster mould in a pressure tight container powered by a shot gun cartridge

varmint · Mar 6, 2015

Bertsmobile, I gotta search for Youtube videos of high energy rate deformation forming! Sounds interesting.

oldtimer 66 · Mar 6, 2015

This is Oldtimer 66. I need to apologize, I must have been mistaken when I said the SR71 was built in the late 50's. My comment about Penn State developing the hydraulic/ engine fuel must also be mistaken. I probably got that from watching Star Wars to many times. I need to learn how to Google something and then copy and paste that information then copy some ones post just to one up them. My computer skills must be lacking. Relying on my memory is just not cutting it. Let's see first flight in 1964. They must have fast tracked that program. 4-5 years to design, develop , test, build, yea that time line sounds about right. I used to go to the Dayton Air show back in the 80's. I remember the announcer saying the SR71 Blackbird just left San Francisco and it will be here in about an hour and a half. He must have been wrong to. You could not get within 100 yards of that plane because it was all roped off but it was impressive from a distance. Later.

MossRoad · Mar 6, 2015

oldtimer 66 said:
... I used to go to the Dayton Air show back in the 80's. I remember the announcer saying the SR71 Blackbird just left San Francisco and it will be here in about an hour and a half. He must have been wrong to. You could not get within 100 yards of that plane because it was all roped off but it was impressive from a distance. Later.

He was most likely correct. Although they wouldn't have been pushing it anywhere near its limits as it only took them about an hour to go SF to DC when they retired it.