As Europe becomes cold and dark, European vacations will become long overflights.
Add lots of windows and this baby could do the trick!
As Europe becomes cold and dark, European vacations will become long overflights.
Add lots of windows and this baby could do the trick!
National origin United States
Manufacturer Convair
First flight 8 August 1946
Introduction 1948
Retired 12 February 1959
Primary user United States Air Force
Produced 1946–1954
Number built 384
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_B-36_Peacemaker
Looks like a B-47 in the back ground??
Was this the one that was prone fuel leaks and was a flying fire hazard?
They began work on it in 1941 and had first flight in 1946.
You couldn’t do that today. Maybe they had faster computers in the 1940s? Or maybe our military acquisition is FUBAR.
There’s one in the Museum of the Air Force at Wright Patterson AFB. Truly enormous. Must have shown up like a beacon on radar.
336 spark plugs to change at each tune-up.
What are the odds of not cross-threading at least one?
One of these giants crashed during a thunderstorm near Water Valley Texas outside of San Angelo in the early 50’s. All crew members were lost.
Capable of carrying its own Fighter escort, “The Gremlin”. (never deployed)
While I appreciate the post, my critique is reserved for the Aviationist: The article is pathetic.
Here’s some B36 aviation pron:
https://media.defense.gov/2020/Oct/14/2002517020/-1/-1/1/B-36%20PEACEMAKER%20PERSONNEL_SMALL.PDF
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I saw one at the Castle museum in Atwater a few years back. I remember it created lots of shade, which was important at the time, as it was 107 degrees that day.
My dad used to talk about how the B-36 was supposed to be able to use the runway at Kadena (Okinawa) even though the lighter B-29s had pounded the concrete badly enough that there were considerable bumps in it already. He came back stateside without actually seeing a Big Stick land there.
Six turning, four burning.
”Peacemaker”. Such an appropriate name. Those who don’t seek peace will have peace dropped on them until they are at peace.
I saw a few of these flying in and out of MacDill AFB in Tampa when I was a youngster. I still remember the roar that they made to this day.
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.