Convair RB-36H Peacemaker
In 1940, the United States feared that Great Britain would fall to Germany, which meant that there was a real possibility that America would be alone against the Axis powers. To be able to strike Germany from bases in either Canada or the continental US meant that the US Army Air Force would need an intercontinental bomber—even Boeing’s B-29 Superfortress, then on the drawing boards, would need bases in Iceland or the Azores to attack Germany, and the USAAF had to assume that those islands would be lost as well. Consolidated Aircraft won the contract against Boeing’s entry in October 1941, on the eve of the US’ entry into World War II.
The XB-36 project ran into numerous delays due to the war: work was halted so Consolidated could concentrate on producing the B-24 Liberator, restarted after the loss of the Philippines and Marianas (the XB-36 would be the only design that could strike Japan from Hawaii), and delayed again as the Allies took the offensive. By the time the first XB-36 Peacemaker flew in August 1946, the war was over.
Another problem Consolidated had run into was the aircraft’s sheer size. Nearly three times as large as the B-29, the XB-36’s wingspan was so large that it could not fit in any hangar then built; its tail was so tall that B-36s would have to be rolled out of the factory with its nose in the air. Everything about it was gigantic: its crew of 14 was divided by the bomb bays, and had bunks and a stove for its projected 40-hour missions. The wings were seven feet thick at their roots, to enable the crew to repair the engines in flight; the six engines themselves had no less than 336 spark plugs, and utilized a “pusher” design that kept steady airflow over the wing.
Because of its size, even six engines had difficulty getting the XB-36 into the air, and it was not an easy aircraft to fly once it got there. The prototypes had the largest tires ever fitted to an aircraft, which had so much ground pressure only three airfields in the entire United States could operate Peacemakers without destroying the runways. (This problem was rectified on production B-36s by using multiple wheels.) USAAF planners now had the world’s second largest aircraft at the time it was built (second only to the Hughes H-4 Spruce Goose), but no role for it to fulfill.
The Cold War was to rescue the B-36 from early retirement. Nuclear weapons were becoming more powerful, moving into the megaton yield, but these bombs also were getting bigger and heavier, outstripping the ability for even the B-29 to carry them—and in any case, the B-29 could not reach targets in the Soviet Union from the US. The B-36 could, without needing to resort to the then-experimental method of inflight refueling, and the huge wings that caused so much headaches for ground crew also allowed it to operate above 45,000 feet—which was far above any antiaircraft fire and, at the time, above the ceiling of any known fighter. Just in case a fighter should be able to reach the Peacemaker, a defensive armament of no less than 14 20mm cannons were added to the bomber; fuselage turrets would retract when not in use so as not to disrupt airflow.
After 21 B-36A pre-production aircraft were produced, the production B-36B (with a raised flight deck) began reaching units of the newly formed Strategic Air Command in 1948. With the B-29 being phased out or sent to Korea for combat operations, the B-36 became the backbone of SAC and its “long rifle”; even as the jet-powered B-47 Stratojet entered service, the B-47 still lacked the range of the Peacemaker and required forward bases to strike targets in the Communist bloc.
To deal with the Peacemaker’s indifferent top speed, four J47 turbojets were added beneath the wings in the early 1950s. This had a number of advantages: it decreased the B-36’s reaction time, gave it a better climb rate, lowered its stall speed, and took some of the load off the six propeller engines, which were prone to seizing up and catching fire. The noise produced by the “six turning and four burning” engines gave the B-36 the unofficial nickname “Earthshaker,” while its sheer size gave rise to the term “Aluminum Overcast.”
With delays to the B-52 project, the B-36’s lifespan was extended a few years by the Featherweight project in 1954, which stripped the aircraft of all armament but its tail guns. This did not help its top speed much, but increased its ceiling to 60,000 feet, far above any fighter of the time. It was only a temporary measure, however: the advent of long-range air-to-air missiles and surface-to-air missiles meant that the B-36 was becoming obsolete. Once the B-52 began to enter service, the Peacemaker was retired. The last left service in Feburary 1959—having never dropped a bomb in anger. For B-36 crews, no greater compliment could be paid. Today, of the 384 Peacemakers produced, only four remain in existence, along with the single prototype XC-99 transport version.
This is the only remaining RB-36 left in the world. Modifications between the standard B-36 bomber and the RB-36 involved sealing the forward bomb bay and turning it into a combination camera bay and darkroom, capable of carrying 23 cameras of various types and developing the film in flight. The second bomb bay was left intact to drop photoflash bombs for night operations. Crew was increased to 22, while additional fuel tanks were added to increase the RB-36's endurance to an astonishing 50 hours. The RB-36 variants served for a decade, from 1949 to 1959; most were modified to RB-36H standard, which shared the "Featherweight" modification of the later B-36 bombers.
51-13730 was delivered to the USAF's 28th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Rapid City (later Ellsworth) AFB, South Dakota, and flew from there until 1957, when it was retired. The aircraft was then flown to Chanute AFB, Illinois, to act as a ground instruction trainer, and then was preserved as a museum piece; by that time, it was one of only five B-36s left in the world. By the late 1970s, it was recognized that the Peacemaker's magnesium parts would deterioriate quickly in open storage and probably ruin the aircraft (which is what happened to the XC-99), so these were replaced by Chanute personnel with more resilient aluminum.
After the closure of Chanute AFB in the early 1990s, the museum there was not sure they would have the funds to maintain 51-13730. The Castle Air Museum obtained the aircraft in 1991, and cut the aircraft into 167 pieces, all transported by rail to the museum. It would take nearly three years to reassemble 51-13730, but the completed and repainted RB-36H was returned to its former glory by 1994, and has been on display at Castle ever since.
When I visited in 2021, 51-13730 is in the midst of another restoration and repaint period, and so does not look her best. It is in the markings of the 28th SRW, with a SAC stripe on the nose. On display next to the aircraft is a Mark 17 nuclear bomb; this is one of only five Mark 17 casings left in the world, and shows the enormous size of the nuclear bombs of the early 1950s. It would have had a yield of about 15 megatons.
With the sad scrapping of the YB-36 prototype from Walter Soplata's collection, I have now seen every B-36 left: the one at the NMUSAF, the one at Pima, the one at the SAC Museum, and now this one at Castle.
Convair RB-36H Peacemaker
In 1940, the United States feared that Great Britain would fall to Germany, which meant that there was a real possibility that America would be alone against the Axis powers. To be able to strike Germany from bases in either Canada or the continental US meant that the US Army Air Force would need an intercontinental bomber—even Boeing’s B-29 Superfortress, then on the drawing boards, would need bases in Iceland or the Azores to attack Germany, and the USAAF had to assume that those islands would be lost as well. Consolidated Aircraft won the contract against Boeing’s entry in October 1941, on the eve of the US’ entry into World War II.
The XB-36 project ran into numerous delays due to the war: work was halted so Consolidated could concentrate on producing the B-24 Liberator, restarted after the loss of the Philippines and Marianas (the XB-36 would be the only design that could strike Japan from Hawaii), and delayed again as the Allies took the offensive. By the time the first XB-36 Peacemaker flew in August 1946, the war was over.
Another problem Consolidated had run into was the aircraft’s sheer size. Nearly three times as large as the B-29, the XB-36’s wingspan was so large that it could not fit in any hangar then built; its tail was so tall that B-36s would have to be rolled out of the factory with its nose in the air. Everything about it was gigantic: its crew of 14 was divided by the bomb bays, and had bunks and a stove for its projected 40-hour missions. The wings were seven feet thick at their roots, to enable the crew to repair the engines in flight; the six engines themselves had no less than 336 spark plugs, and utilized a “pusher” design that kept steady airflow over the wing.
Because of its size, even six engines had difficulty getting the XB-36 into the air, and it was not an easy aircraft to fly once it got there. The prototypes had the largest tires ever fitted to an aircraft, which had so much ground pressure only three airfields in the entire United States could operate Peacemakers without destroying the runways. (This problem was rectified on production B-36s by using multiple wheels.) USAAF planners now had the world’s second largest aircraft at the time it was built (second only to the Hughes H-4 Spruce Goose), but no role for it to fulfill.
The Cold War was to rescue the B-36 from early retirement. Nuclear weapons were becoming more powerful, moving into the megaton yield, but these bombs also were getting bigger and heavier, outstripping the ability for even the B-29 to carry them—and in any case, the B-29 could not reach targets in the Soviet Union from the US. The B-36 could, without needing to resort to the then-experimental method of inflight refueling, and the huge wings that caused so much headaches for ground crew also allowed it to operate above 45,000 feet—which was far above any antiaircraft fire and, at the time, above the ceiling of any known fighter. Just in case a fighter should be able to reach the Peacemaker, a defensive armament of no less than 14 20mm cannons were added to the bomber; fuselage turrets would retract when not in use so as not to disrupt airflow.
After 21 B-36A pre-production aircraft were produced, the production B-36B (with a raised flight deck) began reaching units of the newly formed Strategic Air Command in 1948. With the B-29 being phased out or sent to Korea for combat operations, the B-36 became the backbone of SAC and its “long rifle”; even as the jet-powered B-47 Stratojet entered service, the B-47 still lacked the range of the Peacemaker and required forward bases to strike targets in the Communist bloc.
To deal with the Peacemaker’s indifferent top speed, four J47 turbojets were added beneath the wings in the early 1950s. This had a number of advantages: it decreased the B-36’s reaction time, gave it a better climb rate, lowered its stall speed, and took some of the load off the six propeller engines, which were prone to seizing up and catching fire. The noise produced by the “six turning and four burning” engines gave the B-36 the unofficial nickname “Earthshaker,” while its sheer size gave rise to the term “Aluminum Overcast.”
With delays to the B-52 project, the B-36’s lifespan was extended a few years by the Featherweight project in 1954, which stripped the aircraft of all armament but its tail guns. This did not help its top speed much, but increased its ceiling to 60,000 feet, far above any fighter of the time. It was only a temporary measure, however: the advent of long-range air-to-air missiles and surface-to-air missiles meant that the B-36 was becoming obsolete. Once the B-52 began to enter service, the Peacemaker was retired. The last left service in Feburary 1959—having never dropped a bomb in anger. For B-36 crews, no greater compliment could be paid. Today, of the 384 Peacemakers produced, only four remain in existence, along with the single prototype XC-99 transport version.
This is the only remaining RB-36 left in the world. Modifications between the standard B-36 bomber and the RB-36 involved sealing the forward bomb bay and turning it into a combination camera bay and darkroom, capable of carrying 23 cameras of various types and developing the film in flight. The second bomb bay was left intact to drop photoflash bombs for night operations. Crew was increased to 22, while additional fuel tanks were added to increase the RB-36's endurance to an astonishing 50 hours. The RB-36 variants served for a decade, from 1949 to 1959; most were modified to RB-36H standard, which shared the "Featherweight" modification of the later B-36 bombers.
51-13730 was delivered to the USAF's 28th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Rapid City (later Ellsworth) AFB, South Dakota, and flew from there until 1957, when it was retired. The aircraft was then flown to Chanute AFB, Illinois, to act as a ground instruction trainer, and then was preserved as a museum piece; by that time, it was one of only five B-36s left in the world. By the late 1970s, it was recognized that the Peacemaker's magnesium parts would deterioriate quickly in open storage and probably ruin the aircraft (which is what happened to the XC-99), so these were replaced by Chanute personnel with more resilient aluminum.
After the closure of Chanute AFB in the early 1990s, the museum there was not sure they would have the funds to maintain 51-13730. The Castle Air Museum obtained the aircraft in 1991, and cut the aircraft into 167 pieces, all transported by rail to the museum. It would take nearly three years to reassemble 51-13730, but the completed and repainted RB-36H was returned to its former glory by 1994, and has been on display at Castle ever since.
When I visited in 2021, 51-13730 is in the midst of another restoration and repaint period, and so does not look her best. It is in the markings of the 28th SRW, with a SAC stripe on the nose. On display next to the aircraft is a Mark 17 nuclear bomb; this is one of only five Mark 17 casings left in the world, and shows the enormous size of the nuclear bombs of the early 1950s. It would have had a yield of about 15 megatons.
With the sad scrapping of the YB-36 prototype from Walter Soplata's collection, I have now seen every B-36 left: the one at the NMUSAF, the one at Pima, the one at the SAC Museum, and now this one at Castle.