While the pic isn’t the best, I can’t see any upper-surface damage on WN328, so the damage (from whatever source) appears to be to the underside.

Is it a “regular” Demon or a turreted one?

A lot of specific info, including a list of airframe numbers, as well as info on test variants, unbuilt variants, etc here: http://home.att.net/~jbaugher2/b58.html
Another good site is here: http://www.vectorsite.net/avb58.html

I especially wonder about the proposed SST development of the B-58… proposed long before the SST craze that produced Concorde & TU-144.

Also, the aircraft used for test of the YF-12A’s AN/ASG-18 fire control system and associated GAR-9 (AIM-47A) air-to-air missile was B-58A 55-0665, which was eventually placed out in the open on the photo test range at Edwards AFB. It had (and kept) an elongated nose cone.

Attack/escort versions of both V-22 and Bell 609 have been being proposed about every 2 years since the official start of the V-22 program… and all such proposals have been about the level of detail of what you posted, JaW… neat drawings & a few preliminary cost guesstimates… and have been turned down as fast as they were brought up.

There is no official program to develop such an aircraft, but rest assured Bell/Boeing will continue to bring the idea back up regularly for quite a while.

If you have no on-board operators, then dispense with the cost/weight/complexity of the flight crew and make it a UAV.

The reason for on-board operators is to avoid having that constant stream of data that can be jammed, and which alerts the enemy to the location of the ship that is communicating with the AEW aircraft.

The source was posted by Grim901 in the originating post on this thread, but here it is again:

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=4144686&c=AME&s=AIR

And the C-17 gets a boost… actually 2.

1 from India, who has selected the C-17 as the replacement for its <20 IL-76 transports… initial purchase will be 10, with the possibility of more later.

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/iaf-chooses-boeings-latest-c-17-for-heavy-lift-transport-aircraft_100204806.html

1 from the US Congress, who has passed a bill ordering 8 more.

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=4144686&c=AME&s=AIR

The war-funding bill thwarts Gates’ efforts to end another aircraft program, the C-17 cargo plane.

Gates said the 205 C-17s that are already in the fleet or under construction are enough, and he included no money in the 2010 defense budget for additional C-17s. But the House and Senate added $2.7 billion to the war-funding bill to buy eight C-17s and seven smaller C-130J cargo planes.

Boeing execs must be very happy.

Australia, as a “re-introduction to flat-deck ops” training ship?

28 years late….