Overview

Six pusher radial engines, mounted on the trailing edge of the wings, powered this big long-range SAC bomber. The D, ""burn and turn"", model was boosted by a pair of turbojet pods under the outer wings.

A strategic bomb built by Convair for the United States Air Force. The Convair B36 Peacemaker is said to be the very first bomber that had intercontinental range and was also the first thermonuclear weapon delivery vehicle. The Peacemaker was the largest combat aircraft ever built. Its 230 foot wingspan is almost fifty percent longer than that of the huge B-52 that replaced it. The B-36 was one of America’s major deterrents to violence by a prospective adversary for eight years. From 1948 to 1958, the B-36 became part of the USAF Strategic Air Command.

Major General Henry Arnold described the B-36 as the plane that could “fly the skin off any rivals”. The Peacemaker was also the first Cold War Bomber. Unlike any other aircraft that were seen in wars dropping bombs or firing an enemy, the B-36 was never seen in any of these actions. Instead, the Peacemaker was closest seen during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and the Suez Crisis where it was dispatched to Turkey and Morocco. Thus, the Peacemaker is famous for never having fired a shot in anger and the plane that kept peace for ten long years. The B-36 Peacemaker was also involved in two aircraft collapse incidents, one was last February 13, 1950 in an unpopulated region of British Columbia and it was the first loss of an American Nuclear Weapon. The other one was on May 22, 1957 when a B-36 accidentally dropped a bomb on a deserted area while landing at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque.

A total of 388 B-36 Peacemakers were produced. The last one was built on August 1954. Then on June 29, 1955 the first B-52 was delivered to SAC. All Peacemaker models were delivered and converted to J models on which two jet engines were added to each wing. The last B-36 Peacemaker made its final flight in 1959.

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B-36J Peacemaker Model

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