View allAll Photos Tagged crawlspaces
The things you find when cleaning out the crawlspace...
When I lived in Minnesota, my neighborhood included a very odd little museum, the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices, dedicated to the odd devices associated with medical quackery over the years, including bloodletting devices, placebo pills, radium drops, etc.
One of the main exhibits of the small museum was a Psycograph, a machine that automatically characterized your head and used the principles of phrenology to characterize your personality. It did this using a contraption that was a gigantic metal helmet hooked to a little box of gears, rollers, and stamps, that would look at the height of different regions on your head, and turn that into a little paper tape listing your personality characteristics.
The results of my "head examination" are shown here. I seem to score well in "Individuality", "Wit", "Dignity", and "Exactness", while scoring poorly in "Secretiveness" and "Sexamity" (whatever that is... the hallmark of a good pseudoscience is unique terminology).
Using their provided interpretation chart, you could use these results to determine what your ideal profession is. Going through the results, I'm not a terribly great match for anything in particular, but I do score quite highly for "Zeppelin Attendant." Apparently I was born half a century too late (although I do score well with "Consulting Engineer", which is my actual profession).
1. Tsoris di katz, 2. Valentine (First Run), 3. Trouble close up, 4. so sweet, 5. Austin Van, 6. Trouble on couch, 7. VW Van, 8. What am I supposed to do with this cat?,
9. Thomas at Christmas, 10. Joseph Lee Center, 11. Rambler, 12. Honkers, 13. Volkswagen, rear view, 14. Lamborghini, 15. Honkers up close, 16. Mein Updated Heart,
17. Maverick, 18. Guess Who!, 19. old house, 20. My Favorites, 21. Back of Park Place, 22. Donoway's, back, 23. Chavers, 24. Crawlspace Bob,
25. And my server was..., 26. Robert & his car, 27. Inside Kingdom Plaza - Normandy Mall, 28. Me and Rin, 29. Lights still up, 30. Little Bit, 31. Bad Antiques, 32. 61 T-Bird,
33. Trouble sleeping, 34. Inside Bubba Slye's, 35. 100_1752, 36. 1951 Chevrolet truck, 37. Volkswagen, 38. The cranky elevator from Whiteway, 39. Park & King Pharmacy, 40. 1955 Mercury Montclair,
41. Pontiac Catalina, 42. 1972 Duster, 43. Vette 1, 44. Bonzo, 45. 1967 Cadillac Coupe DeVille, 46. Breakfast, 47. "A tale of two cities", 48. North tower,
49. Mazda, 50. Nirlep, 51. Pearl Plaza Sign, 52. Lap Dog, 53. Damn it, Shannon! :), 54. 100_1735, 55. geophilrob, 56. ashleybridge2,
57. Awful Arthur's Oyster Bar, 58. Robert & Trouble, 59. Sign 3, 60. Fountain in Kingdom Plaza, 61. 1929 Ford Model T, 62. 1967 Plymouth wagon, 63. J & W Discount - former A & P store, 64. Normandy Mall sign,
65. Vette 2, 66. Juliet up close, 67. My mother's car, 68. Kitty Girl, 69. Ranger Hal, 70. Alex's, 71. Ashley River bridges, 72. 100_1746
Well, whaddaya know? All of mine made Explore too! I saw that everyone else was making this poster so I joined in. After all, I'm one of you as well!
Created with fd's Flickr Toys.
August 19, 2024
Wound up catching a juvenile raccoon in the trap. Luckily it's one thats been living in a friends crawlspace so Blane and I let go in Inman Park. Hopefully he'll enjoy living there.
Over in We're Here!, today's theme is "cats on benches" and we're allowed to be somewhat liberal on our interpretation of what a bench is- and since the Disabled Guy built this door and he also builds benches, we'll call this shelf a bench.
The cat is named Blaze. She was a kitten born to a semi-feral mom in a crawlspace in our detached garage. If that sounds familiar, it's because a similar thing happened about three years ago. However, these kittens are not from the same mom cat. We got a live trap and managed to catch three of the four kittens, a very angry orange tabby cat who was very well fed, and the mom (twice). We let her go because it was getting chilly at night and we didn't want to leave that fourth kitten alone overnight without its mom's help. We never caught her or the fourth kitten but we did see them a few times before winter set in, so they're probably still around somewhere (but we blocked off the crawlspace). We kept Blaze and her brother- Muerte (he's all black) and our younger daughter took the other black kitten and named him Dexter.
This little beastie, we named her Blaze because she has an orange strip on her forehead. She's so very loving, purrs loud enough that I can hear her (I can't hear cats purr, usually), and this morning when she jumped onto this shelf, she couldn't figure out to how to get down, so she scream-meowed at me till I helped her. Just wait till the weather warms up and we open that top part... then she'll have two more windows from which she can birdwatch. And, I was delighted to find out that it fit with the theme today.
This was the built-in garage for the rectory. Had to climb up a steep metal ladder to access this and the result was a slight bump to my noggin! Curse that release, heh!
St. Mary Carmelite Church, Joliet, IL
Located on James Street this is one of the seven Magnolia style, Sears Home Kit Houses that still exist today. It was ordered from the Sears catalog and shipped to the buyer in numbered pieces. In 1955, however, the layout was changed. One of the two staircases was removed to enlarge a bedroom, an outdoor porch on the back was enclosed and enlarged and an upstairs bathroom was added. The house looks bigger than it is - its a four-bedroom split Colonial. Most of the house's original details remain, including tin ceilings, moldings, a double-sided fireplace and the outdoor light fixtures. A tuip-shaped chandelier in the foyer is original, as are the fireplace tiles and transom windows. This house showed a widow's walk in the Sears ad but this house never had one. How can you tell this is a Sears house: look for stamped lumber in the basement, attic or crawlspace. Sears Modern Homes were kit homes and the framing pieces were stamped with a letter and a number when the lumber arrived on site. That number was used to assemble the pieces. Often any paperwork, including blueprints and bills of lading can be found in the attic or the basement. Plumbling & heating equipment was not included in the basic kit home but could be purchased separately. From the 1920s to 1940 Sears plumbing features sometimes were stamped with an "R" or "SR". The house is now owned by John & Lisa Tabor. They say the house is solid, strong, well made and very pretty. Located at 1500 James St ,Syracuse, NY (63)
Model: Janie Alblinger
Makeup/Hair: jessie aka Killleader
Body Painting/FX: Matt Huntley
Lighting: Shot with 580exII with Ray Ringflash mounted on camera with second gel'd 580exII inside crawlspace. Triggered by PocketWizards
Lemonjello's raised paw == funny!
You can see the window that fell out on the ground, underneath our telephone box.
(Yes, we filled out foundation crack with Great Stuff. That should hold the house up.)
(P.S. FUCK KUDZU! But it does stop landslides... a problem with my next door neighbor's property.)
Lemonjello the cat, Oranjello the cat, brick wall, broken window, foundation crack, kudzu, peeling paint, telephone box.
side yard, Clint and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
June 19, 2010.
... Read my blog at ClintJCL.wordpress.com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL.wordpress.com
BACKSTORY: We staged some photos to re-create The Great Cat Escape Of 2010. Lemonjello, the inferior cat, is superior in a select few ways: And one of those is warning Clint that something is up. When Oranjello was trapped in the crawlspace, Lemonjello literally meowed and led Clint, 5 feet at a time, to the door of the crawlspace.
This other morning, he meowed with similar alarm and tone -- a meow that is even worse than his normal annoying whiny meows. He led me to the living room, where I immediately felt the heat coming in from the missing pane. It fell 4 feet, but did not break (SLACK!). Being a cat-related endeavor, it fell to Carolyn to deal with the consequences. It was all of $3 to fix.
Yes, this window is in terrible condition, as is the sill. It looked especially worse when we put new siding on the house (the rest of our house had looked like that). I don't really see a point in upkeeping them (Repair? Yes. Upkeep? No.) since they really need to be replaced with 2-pane energy efficient windows anyway. It could definitely use a fresh coat of paint. In the interim, we simply put pillows over the hole. This kept the cats in and the heat out. Fortunately, they never go too far when they get out... But right before fixing it, we decided to take some pictures of the unique situation!
Models: Kelly Sparks & Janie Alblinger
Makeup: Matt Huntley
Lighting: Bare 580exII Speedlite on lower left of camera & 2nd bare speedlight behind subjects trigged by PocketWizards.
''When people hear of Las Vegas, their minds don't automatically manifest the existence of people like me. To everyone that lives vibrantly outside of my world, outside of my invisible glass cage, lot lizards are not like them. We're not human. We don't deserve to be remembered.''
Inspired by Laura Albert (a.k.a. J.T. LeRoy)'s Sarah and The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things
Usage: Anyone has my fullest permission to use this image as a reference. This image is owned by me which I am making it freely available with the request that, when possible, I be properly credited. Any other use is strictly prohibited.
Production still for a short film-in-progress, The Lost Films of Charlie Melroy for UNLV'S Spring 2016 FIS 420 - Short Film class, instructed by Prof. David Schmoeller (Crawlspace, Catacombs, Puppetmaster, Please Kill Mr. Kinski, Little Monsters, 2012) and FIS 326 - Cinematography I, instructed by professional cinematographer David Waldman. The film is made-up as a non-linear anthology. This segment is titled ''Jeremiah Falls' Vanishing Kill City.''
Model: My identical twin sister, Sarahfina Rose
Location: W Tropicana, empty lot behind MGM Grand Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada
Date: Saturday, 23 Apr. 2016
Time: Shoot - 1 hr./Post - 3 hrs.
Also uploaded to DeviantArt: jdnight.deviantart.com/art/Her-Name-Was-Jeremiah-604916371
67 Monroe Avenue, Staten Island, NYC ~ Interior of Motor Room Shaft - turned - bedroom (Shot from exterior crawlspace doors facing inward).
In View: Glass Skylight with polyester blanket covering plexiglass window. Bed with linens, mirrored wall, plastic planters as storage bins.
*Note: Butane Heater with full canister affixed, a half-full liter of alcohol in glass bottle & electric cords which wind up from interior Motor Room Elevator Shaft below. Three Lighters found in room. Three additional FULL Butane canisters found under bed.
*NOTE: Gas furnace & Water heater located in shaft directly below.*
Sunday, 10 April , 2011.
Here is a Lucky Charms box from 1977 with a Reflect-O-Graf offer. From Spike's Crawlspace Collection. Series 12.
Built the desk using used counter tops, PVC pipes and fittings, and lumber for supports. The room is my home office, which was originally a large walk in closet, but with the removal of a wall, now has suitable room.
The desktop is an Inspiron 531 w/ 4gb ram and the lowly Amd Sempron processor. Wiring is hid as best as I could, and assisted by a Belkin cord management power strip.
The crawlspace behind the desk (not shown, as it isn't cleaned up yet) houses my routers and cable modem. They can all be reset using a lightswitch mounted at the crawlspace door.
Some birding, for me at least, has to be done by ear. The Western vs Cassin's Kingbirds are a good example. We have Cassin's all year around in our neighborhood. They are raucous, with an unmistakeable call. The Western is a temporary resident and much quieter. Seeing this Kingbird, at the Carrizo Plain, it was nice to get a confirmatory Western call :)
Getting ready for the weddings entails more than gardening. New carpet was a necessity, due to our charming cats. They now have a beautifully engineered playhouse, connected via a crawlspace tunnel, to the garage. They need never be unsupervised in the house again. Anyone want to adopt my daughters' cats??
_____________________________________________________________________
Member of the Flickr Bird Brigade
Activists for birds and wildlife
[A set of 3 photos] This is a creative commons image, which you may freely use by linking to this page. Please respect the photographer and his work.
This is an abandoned vernacular frame house on US 15 near Gela, North Carolina in Granville County. There are two doors, and I wonder if this was a rural duplex at one time. The house is on concrete blocks with a crawl space beneath. It‘s possible that the far right shows an addition to the building. At one time lattice-work extended along the base of the wooden porch where the most rudimentary of steps exist. Tin roof covers the house, and a shed roof of tin shelters the porch, supported by slender, square wooden posts. Judging from the size of the tree growing in front of the steps, the home possibly has been deserted for some time. I liked the November setting and mood.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
Termites cause significant property damage with their consumption of cellulose (wood) in dwellings and other structures.
530-879-9111 serving Butte County, 530-673-9111 serving Yuba/Sutter County, Independently Owned and Operated
Find us on Facebook at "Truly Nolen Chico"
Tuesday, I replaced the exhaust fan in the kids' bathroom (we replaced the master bathroom's fan in 2016).
This is the completion photo, with the new cover in place. It's indeed quieter and moves more air than the old fan (which was the whole point), but replacing it was much more difficult than it should have been.
First, the old fan was screwed into the joist from above. There was simply no way to remove it from inside the bathroom (without cutting a larger hole, which I didn't need because the new fan's casing should fit perfectly into the existing hole). So I had to go up into the crawlspace, which is full of blown insulation and triangular holes through the 2x4 maze up there -- no place to sit or stand; one must always be balanced on the joists in order to avoid falling through the ceiling.
Once in the attic/crawlspace, I easily found the fan, removed piles of insulation from the area, and then unscrewed it from the joist.
I immediately noticed that the water line to the toilet (in our house, all water "in" lines run above the ceiling, connected to our Manablok system, which is actually pretty handy) -- the water line to the toilet was affixed to the same joist, right on top of the old fan casing. This meant the new fan, with its slightly taller casing, wouldn't fit (and buying a different model wouldn't help; all the ones at the store have the same height casing). This meant another trip through the triangular obstacle course that is our crawlspace to get the tools necessary to affix the water line in a slightly different place. Of course, there isn't any slack in the water line, so this was difficult, but I eventually managed, making room for the slightly larger casing of the new fan.
Next problem, the new fan's casing, which is made to fit this exact hole size, wouldn't fit -- because of the metal flaps that stick out the sides (for attaching it to the joist) were wider than the hole. So, contrary to the instructions on the box, it HAD to be installed from above. This meant another trip through the crawlspace, this time carrying the new fan casing, and another trip, carrying the tools/screws necessary for attaching it. And, of course, the joist is below my feet while I'm up there, meaning I have to bend double and make a screw go into a joist underneath me (and remember, there's nowhere to sit/stand up there, so I'm basically hanging from crossbeams with my legs, using one hand to hold the casing in place and the other hand to hold both the screw AND the screwdriver.)
I can't see from up there whether the bottom of the case is flush with the ceiling, so this means another couple of trips through the crawlspace. But the bathroom is dark while I have the circuit breaker off. I left to go buy a second droplight (the first is in the attic for my work up there), some more metallic foil duct tape, and an extra bit of ducting (which I'll mention later).
Once I made sure the casing was flush with the ceiling below, I got the other screws in place from above, but noticed that the existing duct (the fan vents to the roof) was damaged at its lower extremities -- possibly from being stepped on at some point -- and besides wouldn't reach anyway. It wouldn't reach because the new fan's exhaust port is slightly longer than the old one's, and it's facing *away* from where the duct has to go. (Yes, the builders made sure the duct has to make a U-turn in order to get to the roof vent.) So I bought that extra length of ducting I mentioned earlier, cut off the damaged portion of the old ducting (which is of the wrong size, so I had to buy an adapter to connect fan/new duct to the remaining old duct. I sat up there a while attaching everything with the metallic foil duct tape and making sure it would fit. Then I connected the wiring (hope it's right; I left the instructions down in the bathroom!) and attached the end of the ducting to the new fan's exhaust port.
Back down in the bathroom, I struggled but managed to fit the new motor into the housing. This is at least a two person job, I have to say. Because someone (me) has to hold the new motor in place, just outside the casing, while the second person (also me) has to connect the wiring to the hard-to-get-to plug inside the casing. Then, the first person (me) has to hold the motor in place while the second person (also me, remember) has to insert and secure three screws that hold the motor up there. Doing all this at the top of a ladder.
Then, flip the breaker to test the fan before putting everything away. Nothing happens. Have to take the motor back out, to find that the little plug wasn't secure. Good thing I have two people (both me) to hold the motor while reinserting the plug more solidly this time. (The motor may or may not now have teeth marks on it, because seriously, I only have two hands.) Put those three screws back in.
This time, it works!
Now, about four more trips through the crawlspace, to re-cover the area with the insulation I had pulled away, bring down several handfuls of tools, the roll of foil tape, and the droplight. I *think* I got everything.
Then of course, clean up the mess in the bathroom -- stuff that fell through while I had the hole open.
The fan works great, as I said at top, though it wasn't worth all this effort.
if it doesn't break your heart, it's not enough
~ Switchfoot
I REALLY recommend you click on this and view it large.
I'm actually really proud of this. I took this and the ones in the comments in the creepy crawlspace under my house, which is dusty and creepy but has great lighting.
Quite an improvement. I had fun yesterday. Biggles, the big, lazy orange tom got loose and went under the house through the bathroom. I spent about 45 minutes sitting on the newly installed floor joists calling to him. I finally gave up, thinking, "He'll come up when he's hungry." As I was straightening myself up, I found he had somehow gotten past me and was in the kitchen. His expression seemed to read, "Oh, were you looking for me?" rendered in an upper class British accent. Yes, he is named after the fictional WWI pilot.
And I have something akin to survivor's guilt because of it.
My family didn't lose their home. We have some inconveniences -- like we can't drink our water just yet, or do laundry or shower in our home, and we have some fences to repair, and our entire property has debris -- but we are lucky. The worst damage that my immediate family suffered is the loss of a car. I don't like taking recovery supplies from the Red Cross or from the strangers (!) that have stopped by giving us bottled water, when I know there are so many others out there that need it worse. Yes, ok, we can use the bottled water, and yes, ok, we can use the gloves and masks and trash bags, but it feels weird because our house is still standing and our carpets did not get soaked.
A mile east of us and a quarter mile north of us, there are families that aren't so lucky -- their homes were shown on local news channels with just their rooftops showing out of the water. (I'll admit that my heart sank when I saw that news video, knowing that my house was a similar size and style, and, at the time, I did not know the fate of my home.)
I don't even have to go that far, honestly, to find decimation. One of my neighbors hasn't been able to get into her house at all since Friday, when the flood happened in our area. It was still standing in water two days ago -- I forgot to check yesterday. She lost 21 goats in the mess, and her house was not off the ground very far, so I do not hold out hope that there were not casualties of memories there.
My own grandma has had memories thrown out -- along with carpeting, clothing, bedding, shoes, furniture... Her house wasn't very far off the ground, either, and the thing with her property is, she has a makeshift tornado shelter under her house -- it's more of a crawlspace to go under and do repairs for the water pump, really -- and it still had a ton of water in it on Monday. (That does not bode well for a house with wooden floors.) I shudder to think at the possibility of mold growing there, under this 81-year old woman's house, when she already has respiratory problems.
But we are resilient. We are strong. We are repairing. (Slowly, but surely.)
USAF Serial: 52-2217
From Wikipedia:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_B-36_Peacemaker
The Convair B-36 "Peacemaker" is a strategic bomber built by Convair and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) from 1949 to 1959. The B-36 is the largest mass-produced piston-engined aircraft ever built. It had the longest wingspan of any combat aircraft ever built, at 230 ft (70.1 m). The B-36 was the first bomber capable of delivering any of the nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal from inside its four bomb bays without aircraft modifications. With a range of 10,000 mi (16,000 km) and a maximum payload of 87,200 lb (39,600 kg), the B-36 was capable of intercontinental flight without refuelling.
Entering service in 1948, the B-36 was the primary nuclear weapons delivery vehicle of Strategic Air Command (SAC) until it was replaced by the jet-powered Boeing B-52 Stratofortress beginning in 1955. All but four aircraft have been scrapped.
The genesis of the B-36 can be traced to early 1941, prior to the entry of the United States into World War II. At the time, the threat existed that Britain might fall to the German "Blitz", making a strategic bombing effort by the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) against Germany impossible with the aircraft of the time.
The United States would need a new class of bomber that would reach Europe and return to bases in North America, necessitating a combat range of at least 5,700 miles (9,200 km), the length of a Gander, Newfoundland–Berlin round trip. The USAAC therefore sought a bomber of truly intercontinental range, similar to the German Reichsluftfahrtministerium's (RLM) ultralong-range Amerikabomber program, the subject of a 33-page proposal submitted to Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering on 12 May 1942.
The USAAC sent out the initial request on 11 April 1941, asking for a 450 mph (720 km/h) top speed, a 275 mph (443 km/h) cruising speed, a service ceiling of 45,000 ft (14,000 m), beyond the range of ground-based anti-aircraft fire, and a maximum range of 12,000 miles (19,000 km) at 25,000 ft (7,600 m). These requirements proved too demanding for any short-term design—far exceeding the technology of the day— so on 19 August 1941, they were reduced to a maximum range of 10,000 mi (16,000 km), an effective combat radius of 4,000 mi (6,400 km) with a 10,000 lb (4,500 kg) bombload, a cruising speed between 240 and 300 mph (390 and 480 km/h), and a service ceiling of 40,000 ft (12,000 m); above the maximum effective altitude of Nazi Germany's anti-aircraft guns, save for the rarely deployed 12.8 cm FlaK 40 heavy flak cannon.
The B-36 took shape as an aircraft of immense proportions. It was two-thirds longer than the previous "superbomber", the B-29. The wingspan and tail height of the B-36 exceeded those of the 1960s Soviet Union's Antonov An-22 Antheus military transport, the largest ever propeller-driven aircraft put into production. Only with the advent of the Boeing 747 and the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy, both designed two decades later, did American aircraft capable of lifting a heavier payload become commonplace.
The wings of the B-36 were large even when compared with present-day aircraft, exceeding, for example, those of the C-5 Galaxy, and enabled the B-36 to carry enough fuel to fly the intended long missions without refueling. The maximum thickness of the wing, measured perpendicular to the chord, was 7.5 feet (2.3 m), containing a crawlspace that allowed access to the engines. The wing area permitted cruising altitudes well above the operating ceiling of any 1940s-era operational piston and jet-turbine fighters. Most versions of the B-36 could cruise at over 40,000 feet (12,000 m). B-36 mission logs commonly recorded mock attacks against U.S. cities while flying at 49,000 feet (15,000 m).[citation needed] In 1954, the turrets and other nonessential equipment were removed (not entirely unlike the earlier Silverplate program for the atomic bomb-carrying "specialist" B-29s) that resulted in a "featherweight" configuration believed to have resulted in a top speed of 423 miles per hour (681 km/h), and cruise at 50,000 feet (15,000 m) and dash at over 55,000 feet (17,000 m), perhaps even higher.
The B-36, including its GRB-36, RB-36, and XC-99 variants, was in USAF service as part of the SAC from 1948 to 1959. The RB-36 variants of the B-36 were used for reconnaissance during the Cold War with the Soviet Union and the B-36 bomber variants conducted training and test operations and stood ground and airborne alert, but the latter variants were never used offensively as bombers against hostile forces; it never fired a shot in combat.
Photo by Eric Friedebach
Finally got around to scanning the Frosted Mini-Wheats boxes I acquired from Spike's Crawlspace. In the 70s-80s sweet cereal was generally associated with free-inside prizes, which was never the case with Frosted Mini-Wheats. This one is from 1977 & had a calculator offer.
Vinyl connoisseur Jenkins Bash in yellow t-shirt.
Mr. Bash is the originator of the PopSoterica Hollywood Showcase. The showcase for uniquely gifted bands, as chosen by Jenkins, started humbly before becoming the behemoth it was in the olden days. Mr. Bash originally had a deal with Joe 'The Kook' Cannelletto to hold the event in his pool hall on Selma Avenue. When Mr. Cannelletto led him to what the PopSoterica founder described as a crawlspace under the main room, he was ready to back out, until Joe offered his spacious attic with a view of the Hollywood Hills as the venue.
USAF Serial: 52-2217
From Wikipedia:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_B-36_Peacemaker
The Convair B-36 "Peacemaker" is a strategic bomber built by Convair and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) from 1949 to 1959. The B-36 is the largest mass-produced piston-engined aircraft ever built. It had the longest wingspan of any combat aircraft ever built, at 230 ft (70.1 m). The B-36 was the first bomber capable of delivering any of the nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal from inside its four bomb bays without aircraft modifications. With a range of 10,000 mi (16,000 km) and a maximum payload of 87,200 lb (39,600 kg), the B-36 was capable of intercontinental flight without refuelling.
Entering service in 1948, the B-36 was the primary nuclear weapons delivery vehicle of Strategic Air Command (SAC) until it was replaced by the jet-powered Boeing B-52 Stratofortress beginning in 1955. All but four aircraft have been scrapped.
The genesis of the B-36 can be traced to early 1941, prior to the entry of the United States into World War II. At the time, the threat existed that Britain might fall to the German "Blitz", making a strategic bombing effort by the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) against Germany impossible with the aircraft of the time.
The United States would need a new class of bomber that would reach Europe and return to bases in North America, necessitating a combat range of at least 5,700 miles (9,200 km), the length of a Gander, Newfoundland–Berlin round trip. The USAAC therefore sought a bomber of truly intercontinental range, similar to the German Reichsluftfahrtministerium's (RLM) ultralong-range Amerikabomber program, the subject of a 33-page proposal submitted to Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering on 12 May 1942.
The USAAC sent out the initial request on 11 April 1941, asking for a 450 mph (720 km/h) top speed, a 275 mph (443 km/h) cruising speed, a service ceiling of 45,000 ft (14,000 m), beyond the range of ground-based anti-aircraft fire, and a maximum range of 12,000 miles (19,000 km) at 25,000 ft (7,600 m). These requirements proved too demanding for any short-term design—far exceeding the technology of the day— so on 19 August 1941, they were reduced to a maximum range of 10,000 mi (16,000 km), an effective combat radius of 4,000 mi (6,400 km) with a 10,000 lb (4,500 kg) bombload, a cruising speed between 240 and 300 mph (390 and 480 km/h), and a service ceiling of 40,000 ft (12,000 m); above the maximum effective altitude of Nazi Germany's anti-aircraft guns, save for the rarely deployed 12.8 cm FlaK 40 heavy flak cannon.
The B-36 took shape as an aircraft of immense proportions. It was two-thirds longer than the previous "superbomber", the B-29. The wingspan and tail height of the B-36 exceeded those of the 1960s Soviet Union's Antonov An-22 Antheus military transport, the largest ever propeller-driven aircraft put into production. Only with the advent of the Boeing 747 and the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy, both designed two decades later, did American aircraft capable of lifting a heavier payload become commonplace.
The wings of the B-36 were large even when compared with present-day aircraft, exceeding, for example, those of the C-5 Galaxy, and enabled the B-36 to carry enough fuel to fly the intended long missions without refueling. The maximum thickness of the wing, measured perpendicular to the chord, was 7.5 feet (2.3 m), containing a crawlspace that allowed access to the engines. The wing area permitted cruising altitudes well above the operating ceiling of any 1940s-era operational piston and jet-turbine fighters. Most versions of the B-36 could cruise at over 40,000 feet (12,000 m). B-36 mission logs commonly recorded mock attacks against U.S. cities while flying at 49,000 feet (15,000 m).[citation needed] In 1954, the turrets and other nonessential equipment were removed (not entirely unlike the earlier Silverplate program for the atomic bomb-carrying "specialist" B-29s) that resulted in a "featherweight" configuration believed to have resulted in a top speed of 423 miles per hour (681 km/h), and cruise at 50,000 feet (15,000 m) and dash at over 55,000 feet (17,000 m), perhaps even higher.
The B-36, including its GRB-36, RB-36, and XC-99 variants, was in USAF service as part of the SAC from 1948 to 1959. The RB-36 variants of the B-36 were used for reconnaissance during the Cold War with the Soviet Union and the B-36 bomber variants conducted training and test operations and stood ground and airborne alert, but the latter variants were never used offensively as bombers against hostile forces; it never fired a shot in combat.
Photo by Eric Friedebach
Quite an improvement. I had fun yesterday. Biggles, the big, lazy orange tom got loose and went under the house through the bathroom. I spent about 45 minutes sitting on the newly installed floor joists calling to him. I finally gave up, thinking, "He'll come up when he's hungry." As I was straightening myself up, I found he had somehow gotten past me and was in the kitchen. His expression seemed to read, "Oh, were you looking for me?" rendered in an upper class British accent. Yes, he is named after the fictional WWI pilot.
The hand painted window stays and we plan to re-hang our tie dye curtains and ad a small oil painting or two to the clapboard wall.
2012
crawling, searching, wide-eyed and breathless at what the next corner, path, and shadow might show us; where summer hides, ever waiting.
fallen trees align like steps, helping and daring you to climb higher in the same breath, all to chase the elusive sun.
every step, something new.
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It is a furnace room with the oil tank to the right. That ledge there makes it like a crawl space, but you can walk into it upright.
Quite an improvement. I had fun yesterday. Biggles, the big, lazy orange tom got loose and went under the house through the bathroom. I spent about 45 minutes sitting on the newly installed floor joists calling to him. I finally gave up, thinking, "He'll come up when he's hungry." As I was straightening myself up, I found he had somehow gotten past me and was in the kitchen. His expression seemed to read, "Oh, were you looking for me?" rendered in an upper class British accent. Yes, he is named after the fictional WWI pilot.