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Posted: 2/5/2012 5:49:24 PM EST
Convair B-36 Peacemaker––big damn aircraft
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Posted: 2/5/2012 5:54:47 PM EST
[#1]
They have one at the museum in Ashland, NE. GIANT plane!
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Posted: 2/5/2012 5:55:47 PM EST
[#2]
I knew a guy that flew on one. The 36's could stay aloft for 24 hrs, so they took 2 crews up of 16 people (32). The plane was so big it had a kitchen area.
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Posted: 2/5/2012 5:55:59 PM EST
[#3]
My father in law served on one. Cool plane.
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Posted: 2/5/2012 6:09:55 PM EST
[#4]
Never realized how big they really were 'til I stood next to a wheel on display at Hill AFB many years ago
 They also tried tracks  |
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Posted: 2/5/2012 6:18:28 PM EST
[#5]
Holy crap! They made an aircraft carrier version!!!
B-36 FICON http://www.air-and-space.com/ficon.htm |
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Posted: 2/5/2012 6:25:24 PM EST
[#6]
Awesome, huge plane.
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Posted: 2/5/2012 6:26:08 PM EST
[#7]
Two turning, two burning, two smoking, two joking, and two unaccounted for
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Posted: 2/5/2012 6:28:19 PM EST
[#8]
Magnesium Overcast!
One of my favorite airplanes of all time. Just the enormity of it made it so awesome. |
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Posted: 2/5/2012 6:56:19 PM EST
[#9]
I would give my left nut to hear one of those take off.
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Posted: 2/5/2012 6:59:06 PM EST
[#10]
Quoted:
I would give my left nut to hear one of those take off. I'd give your right one to see one fly again. 
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Posted: 2/5/2012 7:00:51 PM EST
[#11]
Quoted:
Quoted:
I would give my left nut to hear one of those take off. I'd give your right one to see one fly again. same thing goes for seeing a B-47 fly again as well |
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Posted: 2/5/2012 7:16:03 PM EST
[#12]
My Dad was a mechanic on them in the early 50's. He loved the plane and traveled with it since it did take an enormous amount of work to keep it flying, like any complex machine.
He said SAC at the time, and his outfit, had an incredible amount of pride......he simply loved the B-36, SAC, the Air Force, and his country and really enjoyed his service days. He was simply a great guy and a badass when it came to his country and how he felt about it. 
vmax84 |
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Posted: 2/5/2012 7:25:42 PM EST
[#13]
Damn beast of an aircraft!
Did it ever drop conventional bombs in Korea or was is strictly SAC nuke deterrent? |
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Posted: 2/5/2012 7:36:18 PM EST
[#14]
I need a side by side with a b52
For comparison purposes of course 
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Posted: 2/5/2012 7:39:19 PM EST
[#15]
Quoted:
I need a side by side with a b52 For comparison purposes of course 
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Posted: 2/5/2012 7:43:05 PM EST
[#16]
Quoted:
Quoted:
I need a side by side with a b52 For comparison purposes of course http://www.feenixx.com/aviation/posters/USAF_Strategic_Bombers_Poster.jpg http://www.7bwb-36assn.org/images/b36b52b58.jpg?iact=hc&vpx=866&vpy=164&dur=2422&hovh=201&hovw=251&tx=98&ty=85&sig=105468989649544974595&ei=gmgvT-O5OYWztwf-zK3SDw&page=1&tbnh=164&tbnw=204&start=0&ndsp=10&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0 http://sobchak.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/b36cutaway1.jpg All of a sudden, I REALLY want one of those posters. ETA: the first one. |
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Posted: 2/5/2012 7:43:59 PM EST
[#17]
There's a B-36 crash site on one of the mountains just West of El Paso, Texas.
I'm here for six weeks working at Fort Bliss and plan on hiking up to the site and checking it out one weekend while I'm here. I've tried to find information on other nearby crash sites, but this B-36 site is the only one I've been able to find anything on. I would have thought that with there being a military airfield here, that there would be a bunch of crash sites out in the desert. . Does anyone know of any others? |
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Posted: 2/5/2012 7:48:44 PM EST
[#18]
With 336 spark plugs, maintenance would have been "tedious" to say the least. Pretty neat for such a big ole bastard, but it was obsolete almost before its maiden flight.
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Posted: 2/5/2012 8:01:58 PM EST
[#19]
Quoted:
My Dad was a mechanic on them in the early 50's. He loved the plane and traveled with it since it did take an enormous amount of work to keep it flying, like any complex machine. He said SAC at the time, and his outfit, had an incredible amount of pride......he simply loved the B-36, SAC, the Air Force, and his country and really enjoyed his service days. He was simply a great guy and a badass when it came to his country and how he felt about it. <a href="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/820/scan0001yy.jpg/" target="_blank">http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/7464/scan0001yy.jpg</a> vmax84 That's exactly how my FIL is about his days in the AF. |
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Posted: 2/5/2012 8:02:23 PM EST
[#20]
There is one at the USAF museum in Dayton.
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Posted: 2/5/2012 8:07:52 PM EST
[#21]
My Dad flew on those from time to time.
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Posted: 2/5/2012 8:13:19 PM EST
[#22]
Jets? Props? Get Both! Cool plane. |
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Posted: 2/5/2012 8:13:39 PM EST
[#23]
Quoted:
There is one at the USAF museum in Dayton. YUP, saw it! |
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Posted: 2/5/2012 8:14:08 PM EST
[#24]
Quoted:
Damn beast of an aircraft! Did it ever drop conventional bombs in Korea or was is strictly SAC nuke deterrent? pretty sure it never served in the Korean conflict. |
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Posted: 2/5/2012 8:15:33 PM EST
[#25]
The pinnacle of WWII bomber technology, entering service long after the war it was needed in... The M14 of bombers.
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Posted: 2/5/2012 8:15:47 PM EST
[#26]
I don't believe they ever fired a shot/dropped a bomb in anger.
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Posted: 2/5/2012 8:29:51 PM EST
[#27]
Quoted:
I don't believe they ever fired a shot/dropped a bomb in anger. Since they served mainly as SAC assets, that's a good thing. We've never fired a Minuteman or Trident in anger, likewise. |
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Posted: 2/5/2012 8:54:44 PM EST
[#28]
How much fuel did they carry, and how long were they in service ?
I believe the B-47 was the replacement, but the B-36 is one hella big complicated aircraft. I would love to have stood at the end of a runway just to feel and hear one of these throttle up and brake release. Thanks for the posts and pics everybody.
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Posted: 2/5/2012 8:57:33 PM EST
[#29]
AWESOME!!!
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Posted: 2/5/2012 9:34:34 PM EST
[#30]
Each pusher engine took 50 GALLONS of oil.
My father was at Carswell AFB whent the tornado hit. He jumped into a drainage ditch near the flightline. After it had passed B-36s were tossed around like toys. |
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Posted: 2/5/2012 9:36:01 PM EST
[#31]
The NB-36 was neat too. Had a shielded cockpit, 12 inch leaded glass windows. Pilots said it was quiet as a tomb at altitude due to all the shielding.insulation.
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Posted: 2/5/2012 10:27:11 PM EST
[#32]
Quoted: I knew a guy that flew on one. The 36's could stay aloft for 24 hrs, so they took 2 crews up of 16 people (32). The plane was so big it had a kitchen area. http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=346054   |
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Posted: 2/5/2012 10:35:59 PM EST
[#33]
What a grand plane! That we could imagine, let alone built such a machine is incredible.It reminds me of what a great and powerful nation we once were and it makes me hate the internal enemies even more for what they have done over the last 40 years.
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Posted: 2/5/2012 10:38:26 PM EST
[#34]
Quoted:
The NB-36 was neat too. Had a shielded cockpit, 12 inch leaded glass windows. Pilots said it was quiet as a tomb at altitude due to all the shielding.insulation. I never understood why the fuck the glass was leaded... The transparencies aren't between the reactor and crew. |
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Posted: 2/5/2012 11:14:14 PM EST
[#35]
Quoted:
Quoted:
The NB-36 was neat too. Had a shielded cockpit, 12 inch leaded glass windows. Pilots said it was quiet as a tomb at altitude due to all the shielding.insulation. I never understood why the fuck the glass was leaded... The transparencies aren't between the reactor and crew. Since you two brought it up... For those not familiar with the NB-36, it was a flying test-bed into the feasibility of a nuclear powered aircraft. They literally put a functioning, AIR COOLED nuclear reactor in the back of the plane, and shielded the crew like crazy. Remember this was the late 1940s and early 1950s when the attitude was "Why WOULDN'T we try to make a nuclear powered ______<insert typical consumer household appliance here>____" AMERICA!!!! FUCK YEAH!!!!!!! |
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Posted: 2/6/2012 3:33:23 AM EST
[#36]
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
The NB-36 was neat too. Had a shielded cockpit, 12 inch leaded glass windows. Pilots said it was quiet as a tomb at altitude due to all the shielding.insulation. I never understood why the fuck the glass was leaded... The transparencies aren't between the reactor and crew. Since you two brought it up... For those not familiar with the NB-36, it was a flying test-bed into the feasibility of a nuclear powered aircraft. They literally put a functioning, AIR COOLED nuclear reactor in the back of the plane, and shielded the crew like crazy. Remember this was the late 1940s and early 1950s when the attitude was "Why WOULDN'T we try to make a nuclear powered ______<insert typical consumer household appliance here>____" AMERICA!!!! FUCK YEAH!!!!!!! That ain't got shit on the "Flying Crowbar". I present the pinnacle of awesome American war machines, the SLAM doomsday device: 
The idea is pretty simple, you take a nuclear reactor powerful enough to keep a city lit, and build a ramjet engine out of it. Then you strap that sucker in a midget SR-71 fuselage, fill it to the brim with one megaton nuclear bombs, and give it a computer autopilot programmed to Destroy All Humans, starting with the Soviets. 
Needless to say, since this idea came about back when America was awesome and men were men, we weren't going to build one or two of these unlimited range nightmare robot nuclear bomber missiles, we wanted to build thousands of them. Just to give you an idea of this things flight plan: 
Just looking at the attack profile of this thing must have made Ivan shat his communist pants. This thing has to be the most brutally elegant system of human destruction ever envisioned. It's a twenty ton mach three suppository of nuclear "Fuck YOU!" Needless to say, the communists, latent homosexuals and bedwetters in our government canceled the thing. And with the Flying Crowbar, a little bit of American Greatness died. |
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Posted: 2/6/2012 3:58:03 AM EST
[#37]
My Scoutmaster was stationed at a base with them. He said they always knew when they were coming back from a flight, EVERYTHING at the base would set up a sympathetic vibration with the props. Apparently, the sound traveled quite a ways...
He said "Big" was an understatement, they were huge.
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Posted: 2/6/2012 4:22:42 AM EST
[#38]
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
The NB-36 was neat too. Had a shielded cockpit, 12 inch leaded glass windows. Pilots said it was quiet as a tomb at altitude due to all the shielding.insulation. I never understood why the fuck the glass was leaded... The transparencies aren't between the reactor and crew. Since you two brought it up... For those not familiar with the NB-36, it was a flying test-bed into the feasibility of a nuclear powered aircraft. They literally put a functioning, AIR COOLED nuclear reactor in the back of the plane, and shielded the crew like crazy. Remember this was the late 1940s and early 1950s when the attitude was "Why WOULDN'T we try to make a nuclear powered ______<insert typical consumer household appliance here>____" AMERICA!!!! FUCK YEAH!!!!!!! That ain't got shit on the "Flying Crowbar". I present the pinnacle of awesome American war machines, the SLAM doomsday device: http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/l596/WaylandTR85/9d463761.jpg The idea is pretty simple, you take a nuclear reactor powerful enough to keep a city lit, and build a ramjet engine out of it. Then you strap that sucker in a midget SR-71 fuselage, fill it to the brim with one megaton nuclear bombs, and give it a computer autopilot programmed to Destroy All Humans, starting with the Soviets. http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/l596/WaylandTR85/f4c95880.jpg Needless to say, since this idea came about back when America was awesome and men were men, we weren't going to build one or two of these unlimited range nightmare robot nuclear bomber missiles, we wanted to build thousands of them. Just to give you an idea of this things flight plan: http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/l596/WaylandTR85/edab8dd2.jpg Just looking at the attack profile of this thing must have made Ivan shat his communist pants. This thing has to be the most brutally elegant system of human destruction ever envisioned. It's a twenty ton mach three suppository of nuclear "Fuck YOU!" Needless to say, the communists, latent homosexuals and bedwetters in our government canceled the thing. And with the Flying Crowbar, a little bit of American Greatness died. I agree with this post 100% and wish we would have built them. Testing might have been an issue, but fuck it. |
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Posted: 2/6/2012 4:25:11 AM EST
[#39]
Quoted:
Quoted:
Damn beast of an aircraft! Did it ever drop conventional bombs in Korea or was is strictly SAC nuke deterrent? pretty sure it never served in the Korean conflict. I asked because it was probably the only conflict where it could have been used to drop conventional ord. I know they weren't used in Vietnam and they were post WWII. |
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Posted: 2/6/2012 4:27:01 AM EST
[#40]
Quoted:
The pinnacle of WWII bomber technology, entering service long after the war it was needed in... The M14 of bombers. +1. This |
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Posted: 2/6/2012 5:03:31 AM EST
[#41]
Quoted:
How much fuel did they carry, and how long were they in service ? I believe the B-47 was the replacement, but the B-36 is one hella big complicated aircraft. I would love to have stood at the end of a runway just to feel and hear one of these throttle up and brake release. Thanks for the posts and pics everybody. The B-52 replaced the B-36. The B-47 was a medium range bomber, and later recon aircraft. Wiki says the last one was retired in 1959. Once the B-52 replaced them, they were relegated to recon duties. I don't know how much fuel they carried, but as I mentioned earlier they could stay aloft for 24 hrs. Of course that's not saying much because they didn't have a fast top speed (250 mph) |
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Posted: 2/6/2012 5:23:00 AM EST
[#42]
There's one at Pima in AZ
It's so big it's kind of off by itself. It's really hard to photograph with the B52s there because of it's size. |
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Posted: 2/6/2012 5:23:22 AM EST
[#43]
One of those guys in the video looked a lot like Jimmy Stewart!!!!!
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Posted: 2/6/2012 5:26:10 AM EST
[#44]
The C-99 cargo version was also impressive as was the YB-60 all jet version.
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Posted: 2/6/2012 5:30:33 AM EST
[#45]
Quoted:
There is one at the USAF museum in Dayton. yup. its so fucking huge you need a wide angle lens to take its picture from the second floor. |
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Posted: 2/6/2012 5:33:47 AM EST
[#46]
that is one Big Ass airplane
very impressive Strategic Air Command (was on Netflix) is a must-watch. I've known a few people who worked on these back in the day. ETA: there should be one of these sitting at the Castle Air Museum (Atwater, CA) |
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Posted: 2/6/2012 5:47:48 AM EST
[#47]
A lot of comforts on it, but I bet if you had to take a dump, you still had to use a bucket or bag.
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Posted: 2/6/2012 7:33:50 AM EST
[#48]
The jet engines took awhile to modify for that plane. They wanted them to burn gasoline instead of jet fuel, and they did.
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Posted: 2/6/2012 7:39:02 AM EST
[#49]
Quoted:
One of those guys in the video looked a lot like Jimmy Stewart!!!!! And Colonel Henry Potter (M.A.S.H.) Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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Posted: 2/6/2012 7:49:09 AM EST
[#50]
Quoted:
Quoted:
My Dad was a mechanic on them in the early 50's. He loved the plane and traveled with it since it did take an enormous amount of work to keep it flying, like any complex machine. He said SAC at the time, and his outfit, had an incredible amount of pride......he simply loved the B-36, SAC, the Air Force, and his country and really enjoyed his service days. He was simply a great guy and a badass when it came to his country and how he felt about it. <a href="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/820/scan0001yy.jpg/" target="_blank">http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/7464/scan0001yy.jpg</a> vmax84 That's exactly how my FIL is about his days in the AF. I remember my Dad saying the absolute best feeling was watching "your plane" taxi out after you worked on it all night long, the flight engineer go thru all the run ups, and watch the aircraft barrel down the runway and disappear out of site.......in contrast, he said the absolute shittest feeling was watching it taxi out, flight engineer does the runup, and then have the plane come back to the ramp. They had so much pride back then in their outfit that this was really the worse feeling ever. vmax84 |
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