"B-36 Peacemaker" Topic

Remember these?

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Amicalement
Armand

Those are such cool aircraft….something about the USAF of the 1950s makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside….

My dad was a flight engineer on one, so I grew up with them. I remember ORIs at both Walker and Ramey where they launched a full squadron at fifteen second intervals--enough noise that the housing area shook, windows vibrated, and stuff fell off the walls. There's a tunnel to get from the cockpit to the rear of the aircraft with a trolley and an overhead pull rope--God that was fun to play on! (crew family got to see the birds more often than the general base population)

It was so big our first impression of the B-52s when they arrived at Ramey AB, PR, was "how dinky."

I've seen my dad's plane land with all six props feathered--which is why families traditionally turn around when the plane is about to touch down.

On my desk is the clock from his flight engineer's station, retrieved when they flew it to Davis Monthan to the Boneyard.

This was a Hollywood movie from 1955 called "Strategic Air Command" starring Jimmy Stewart (who in real life, was in the USAAF during WWII and rose to the rank of Brig. Gen. in the USAFR) and June Allyson. The radioman is Henry Morgan (Col Potter from MASH).

Mark

Love that plane. Built several different models of it. Nearby Chanute AFB had one on display for many years. The USAF took it back when they closed the base. They also took the B-29 and I have no idea what happened to it.

Saw one in flight once, must have been 64 or 65. We were on our way to Galveston for the week, and one was flying into Ellington AFB for the annual air show. Never seen a B52 in flight though.

Never got to see a B-36, at least that I can recall, sadly.

I have been Buffs and B-1s up close though.

Watching a fast moving, low-level B-52, performing a practice bombing run on your local city, is a sobering experience, especially when you understand what it really means.

As I said to the man at the Pima Air Museum who saw me taking pictures of their mostly intact Peacemaker and asked "Pity they're gone, isn't it?"
"Not really."
They were impressively large. They were intimidating. They were magnificent in flight. They were also barely airworthy widow-makers with a primary mission too horrifying for nightmares.

Saw one in flight as a child. Flew over low on an Armed Forces Day flyover, low enough to read the markings on the wings. It came out of Chennault AFB at Lake Charles, LA. And it was noisy.

My other memory of that time was the B-47s lined up on their runway.

Cuban Missile Crisis made for an interesting time – 40 miles from a SAC base, 2 miles from an active navy base, and surrounded by refineries.

Can you say target?

I also have my dad's dosimeter, like a round black pillbox worn as a necklace. Once a week the flight surgeon checked their radiation exposure. More serious were the little white pills crew were issued so they could stay alert for the extremely long missions. And i complained about eye strain at my job!

Saw one at the U.S, Air Force Museum in Dayton,OH.

They were magnificent in flight. They were also barely airworthy widow-makers with a primary mission too horrifying for nightmares.

I always explained the real primary mission as praying that we never had to do the official mission.

But I will agree with the barely airworthy, and you missed "maintenance hog" in the list.

Yeah, it's big but it really is a horrible airplane. The engines weren't designed for a pusher configurations leading to numerous fires, etc. We actually lost a nuclear bomb because of the planes poor design.

Yep. I remember when you posted about the B-36 before LOL. Robert

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TMP link

A buddy of mine's father was a flight engineer on the '36. His recollections was that they rarely landed without at least one (and often more) engines feathered. Was never happier than when he transitioned to the '52. As he put it, the '36 design was just too much for recip technology to handle. Still, it was a beauty of a plane.

I'm pretty sure that we could have done a "Super B36" with turboprops. The P3/C130 engines are right up there in comparable power and are significantly lighter, too. But those 20 years made a huge difference in engine technology, and the B52s were in service by then.

Robert… you had a LOOONG memory… (big smile).
Love these plane.

Amicalement
Armand

B-36 was also known as "The Aluminum Overcast"

My Uncle was a B-36 crewman. He said it was HUGE. Robert

I remember growing in the East Bay (San Francisco) in the late 40's and early 50's. We lived just south of the Oakland Airport. For a short period of time B-36's were based at the airport. I'm not sure of the reason why. It wasn't for too long a period, though. They would literally fly over our house. I can still remember the sound of the aircraft approaching and the fact that the house would shake as they came over. No matter how many times they came over, my brother and I would rush into the back yard and watch. It never got boring.

The Castle AFB Museum has one on display. You can get up nice and close.

link

I suspect to increase the range a bit (every little bit helps), and also, as someone mentioned above, so it could get out of California without having to climb over the mountains, when fully loaded, in order to do that.