Posted on 03/13/2022 7:26:03 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
Much was made of the fact that the wing of the B-36 Peacemaker was deep enough to allow engineers to enter it and maintain the engines in flight.
Conceived during 1941 in case Germany occupied Britain, when US bombers would then have insufficient range to retaliate, the B-36 Peacemaker was to be primarily a ‘10,000-mile bomber’ with heavy defensive armament, six engines and a performance that would prevent interception by fighters.
It was one of the first aircraft to use substantial amounts of magnesium in its structure, leading to the bomber’s ‘Magnesium Overcast’ nickname. It earned many superlatives due to the size and complexity of its structure, which used 27 miles of wiring, had a wingspan longer than the Wright brothers’ first flight, equivalent engine power to 400 cars, the same internal capacity as three five-room houses and 27,000 gallons of internal fuel – enough to propel a car around the world 18 times.
Pilot Lt Col Ed Sandin of the 5th SRW pioneered a hazardous technique for reaching down and inserting a main landing gear down-lock in flight after numerous attempts to make the gear lock down. The narrow crawl-way to this position over the wheel well meant that the job had to be done without wearing a parachute, while trying to avoid looking down into an open abyss below.
(Excerpt) Read more at theaviationgeekclub.com ...
Before that I had a weird little calculator with basic functions and those LED bubble displays that made the numbers look bigger...
The low drone these beasts made was unmistakable. Growing up in South Miami in the 50’s I heard them going in and out of Homestead AFB (SAC) on many occasions. Didn’t even have to look up to know it was a B36 - but I always did.
That was expensive to do. Certainly for training the numerous power plant mechanics needed for the program.
The Air Force museum is must stop for any aircraft fan.
You’re thinking of the SR-71 and A-12’s.
Not to mention all the diversity managers and hires gumming up the works.
“You couldn’t do that today. Maybe they had faster computers in the 1940s? Or maybe our military acquisition is FUBAR.”
Yes but today we would have a certain quote of LGTBQ people working on it so that would be better?
Right?
And the employees would all take seminars to feel ashamed of their white guilt
My Dad was a machinist, he loved things like that engine..
I’m just young enough that I don’t know how to use a slide rule. We had calculators, the guys the year ahead of me in the pre-calculus math class I took in high school learned to use slide rules. I had a TI SR-51-II.
I made the transition to HP and RPN c. 1979. Late in college I had the original HP-41C with the mag card reader accessory for program and data storage. There are quite a few RPN calculator choices in the Apple App Store. I have one handy on my iPhone and iPad, don’t really use them that much. The spreadsheet pretty well killed calculators.
This thread reminds me I need to get down to see the air museum at Warner Robbins AFB again. It has been 20 years since I’ve been there. It’s a long day trip driving for me.
Maybe the fuel leaks are more SR71. The slogan for B-36 aircraft was “two turning, two burning, two smoking, two choking and two more unaccounted for” from engine fires (from Wikipedia). :-)
I had no idea about the B36 program or that 384 were produced from 1946 to 1954. That was a short-lived aircraft program. It's fascinating that the objective was to build a bomber that could strike Britain from the USA if the Soviets captured the country.
I had to laugh at the caption on page 30:
"On the occasion of the first B-36s to visit Great Britain, the fifteen man crew of one the six aircraft deployed, B-36D, (49- 2658) line up for the cameras at RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk on Janu- ary 17th 1951. The authorities had hoped the presence of these six aircraft would go unnoticed, and not fuel opposition to the USAF bases."Imagine trying to hide these beasts flying into the air base!
Above 45,000 feet it can out turn a MiG-15. At those altitudes a swept wing jet could be evaded by a turn as it would fall away in a stall. It a also extremely difficult to intercept by 1950s Russian jets. At the range radar could detect it, a gun armed fighter had time to make one attempt to intercept. A miss in altitude or vector by the slightest degree gave the fighter no chance to catch it. And those radars had a hard time giving perfect altitudes.
Mission profile a was really weird too. Something like the first half of the mission was only about 5000 feet, as it lightened it climbed higher. Finally at ending Russia it could hit 45 to 50 thousand. As it approached the target from hundreds of miles it started a very shallow dive and went screaming fast in that rarified air. Dropped bomb and kept this super long shallow dive hopefully to safety.
Just a beast.
Sure does, the 2 and 1 engine setup was rather unique.
Six turning and four burning!
The movie “Strategic Air Command” with Jimmy Stewart (aka Brig. Gen James M. Stewart USAFR) contains a lot of B-36 and B-47 airplane porn…
Bump for later
What a great job! I need to get down there again before the weather gets too hot.
B-21 Raider is....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI3HqdnYmoo
SR-51-II, with the bright red numbers, was the calculator I had before the HP. Always coveted an HP-41C, but never got one.
Slide rules are pretty easy to use, though I was never a real whiz with one. It’s just adding and subtracting logarithms, plus the trig functions. The really good thing about them is that you learn to be careful about keeping track of orders of magnitude (also, your batteries never give out in the middle of an exam).
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