B-36 Peacemaker is this true.

[angelsandair]

I've been reading around and browsing through websites, is it true that they are restoring a B-36 Peacemaker to a flying condition? Wow just imagine that! Holy crud dude, those things were bigger than the B-52s and her sister the XB-60 was even able to carry even more than the B-36.  Well, I think this is cool but I'd rather ask here from people who mostly know what is happening in the outside world 
I know they are restoring a B-29 to flying condition. I've seen a B-29 fly once. But that's it.

~1pLUs44

[EagleEyes]

would be cool if it was true!!

[rpm]

I saw a forward section of B36 fuselage at the Alliance airshow several years ago. They were collecting donations toward restoration. I don't know if it's the same one you are talking about.

[DiabloTX]

Googlay is your friend.

The Restoration Project
 TheAir Force approved the B-36 Restoration Project following an outpouring of community support in the summer of 1992, reversing plans to move the aircraft from the Fort Worth area to another state. The restoration is coordinated by the Fort Worth Aviation Heritage Association, but the B-36 "know-how" and the hands-on labor are supplied by an enthusiastic group of volunteers. Many are retired General Dynamics employees who helped design or build the B-36, while others are former Peacemaker crewmembers retired from the Air Force. Volunteers from other area companies, schools and orginizations have also joined the effort. For all of them, the project is truly a "labor of love" dedicated to preservation of this incredible airplane. The work is under way in a hanger at the Lockheed Fort Worth Company.

 http://pages.nyu.edu/~jh15/b-36.html

[Arlo]

Leave it to a Houstonite to enlighten a DFWer on a BIG local project.

(Saw the clip and ad for this in the office a couple years back) 

[DiabloTX]

Shhhh Arlo, I was hoping the obvious wouldn't be so, umm, obvious. 

[Icefox]

Actually, this aircraft, the City of Fort Worth (SN 52-2220), is currently in Tucson undergoing restoration at the behest of the Air Force. This ship, a B-36J, was the final airframe ever built and was loaned to Fort Worth in the late 1950s. It sat at Amon Carter Field until the airport was closed and it spent some time at the Southwest Aero Museum. It was then moved to Carswell, where restoration was taking place. Both of my parents actually worked on this airplane, and my mother was the only woman allowed to work on and around the bomber at the time.

When it was "discovered" that the airbase had no place to display the aircraft, they abandoned the project. Citizens of Fort Worth lobbied to finish the restoration and, with the help of some cold hard cash, got permission. The aircraft was supposed to have been flown to Alliance, but the government deemed it a national security risk. Thus, it was trucked to AFW. When funding eventually ran out shortly thereafter, the Air Force decided enough was enough and they took their aircraft back. It was then moved to Tucson to have restoration completed.

[Arlo]

There's an ongoing petition for it's return. 

[Replicant]

I think this clearly demonstrates just how big the B36 is!

[DiabloTX]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZSpqFPSK_c

[SOB]

Restoration Progress: http://www.pimaair.org/project.php?rid=1

[Airscrew]

all this stuff about the B-36 got me to thinkin about the XC-99 that I used to see all time at Kelly.   I found this website, has alot of good stuff

http://www.40th-bomb-wing.com/gallery6.html

well worth the time to read, lots of old pictures too.

Apparently the XC-99 was disassembled and moved to Wright-Patt starting in 2004 and it supposed to be restored for the museum.

[DrDea]

 Good lord.That thing was a beast

The tremendous bomb load of the Convair B-36 is clearly indicated by the fact that a B-36 can haul 84,000 pounds of bombs - more than the gross weight of a fully loaded WWII B-24 Liberator bomber.

[Icefox]

My mother found (and still has) a pencil that still had the old Fort Worth area code on it (it apparently used letters or something) for a car dealership underneath one of the pilot's rudder pedals.

The initial plan was to have the aircraft restored to flyable condition even though the actual flight of the aircraft would most likely have been cost prohibitive, at least at the time. From what I've been told, it was supposed to have been the only flyable example of such an aircraft. Whether or not that'll ever happen is up in the air, as the cost to just start the damn thing must be astronomical.

Another little bit of B-36 trivia. My father had one of the side blisters land in his back yard when he was younger. Apparently the victim of a blowout, it landed pretty much in one piece.

[rpm]

That must be an early model in the pic. It has no jets. All the old photos (and in the movie Strategic Air Command) they had 4 jet engines for take-off assist.