Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: angelsandair on March 23, 2008, 03:52:28 PM
-
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 :lol
I know they are restoring a B-29 to flying condition. I've seen a B-29 fly once. But that's it.
~1pLUs44
-
would be cool if it was true!!
-
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.
-
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
-
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) :D
-
Shhhh Arlo, I was hoping the obvious wouldn't be so, umm, obvious. ;)
-
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.
-
There's an ongoing petition for it's return. :cool:
-
I think this clearly demonstrates just how big the B36 is! ;)
(http://www.btinternet.com/~nexx/Convair.jpg)
-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZSpqFPSK_c
-
Restoration Progress: http://www.pimaair.org/project.php?rid=1
-
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.
-
Good lord.That thing was a beast :O
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
It's actually the first production B-36. That or very close to it. As you said, no jets. It's also got the huge "runway breaker" tires.
-
In the days before the US Air Force Museum's expansion, the B-36 was kept in the same display hangar as the WW2 aircraft. They all fit underneath it..no extra elevation was needed. In fact, they had to cut a hole in the metal above the hangar door so the tail could get into the hangar at all.
Standing on its own "feet" (standard gear), a six footer can easily walk underneath the fuselage to see the open bomb bay doors. Without ducking. At all. The original gear (that Icefox called "runway breakers") applied so much weight per square inch that only specially designed runways could accommodate it. They eventually changed the gear to a set of 4 tires per gear to distribute the weight better. The plane was designed to fly for 24 hours on a single fuel load, without in flight refueling. When first deployed, it could fly higher than contemporary FIGHTERS could.
You cannot conceive of how big this is until you see it. A B52 is smaller, and sits MUCH closer to the ground.
My favorite project was "FICON" -- Fighter Conveyor. Although the escort version was bit ridiculous (the "Goblin"), they did make a recon carrier version This project would port a specially modified F-84 thunderflash (the recon version of the thunderstreak) all the way to the edge of USSR airspace. Then, the recon plane would be let down by trapeze and send off for a mission. On completion, it would rendezvous with the B-36, snag the trapeze, get retracted (partly) into the bay, and hitch a ride back home.
(http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/models_pages/ficon_modl_files/ficon_00.jpg)
From what I remember, they may have actually run some of these operations.
-
Here is more information about project "FICON"
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/models_pages/ficon_modl.htm
Here is information about the B-36 and its variants
http://www.air-and-space.com/b-36%20variants.htm
(http://www.air-and-space.com/peacemkr/b36gupx.jpg)
Proposed cargo version to carry parts of the Saturn V rocket
-
Are they going to restore a Goblin too?
-
There's been a restored, nonflying Goblin at Air Force Museum for 25+ years. Doubt they'd ever try to make it flyable -- the original project assessment felt the Goblin could be handled OK by an excellent pilot, but that it was too unstable for reliable use by the average pilot. (Not that anyone would ever ADMIT to being average...fighter pilots being what they are!) Anyway, making a Goblin flyable sounds like a recipe for an accident.
-
Goblin was tested on the B29 before attempted on a B36
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ct_sP1O82k
video of testing
-
Good lord.That thing was a beast :O
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.
It can carry more than the B-52. The b-52's carrying capacity is about 70,000-77,000 pounds. And the only reason it beat the B-36's jet engined sister the XB-60 was because of speed. Just imagine if the XB-60 was in Iraq today :D
But yea, It wasnt the exact plane restoration I heard about. I heard they were restoring one for Red Bull. I know Red Bull has like it's own little air force with a B-25, a P-51, and a P-40 or something like that. But yea, this is cool. The hard part about restoring the B-36 is finding someone to fly one. :D
-
I downloaded a B-36 for MSFS that was very well done .. flight model and all.
It took *all* of LAX to get off the ground, and even then, hadda wave hop a bit while I got some speed while milking the flaps up..
..but once she was up to speed, trimmed out, ..man .. what a ride.
And that was just MSFS .. (the Hustler ..with AB flames an all, .. what *fun* in MSFS :)
Takeoff is definitely the event for the Peacemaker .. it really takes awhile to get flight speed.
-GE
-
Yep :aok
I also heard that in about a year or 2 they will have a flying B-29 superfortress. I know there is only 1 right now that flies. (I've seen it fly, it's a monster :devil
-
oh actually I heard now that the B-29 will be ready in about a year now. :aok
-
Only problem with the B-36 is that even with six R4360s, it was still way under powered and those engines were really stretched to their limits. Cooling them was a major pain. The Lycomming XR-7755 - while it never went into production would've been an ideal mate to the B-36. But most likely the R4360 was chosen because of its longer development cycle and fact that it was currently in the inventory. So you had an engine mated to an airframe that needed something twice as powerful - and an overworked engine that suffered cooling problems and frequent failures as a result of thermal runaway.
But the odd thing is, even through the XR-7755 had a higher fuel consumption per engine at MTO power (580 GPH), its BSFC was actually lower then the R-4360 when it would've gotten up to altitude - and range actually increased.
-
wow i didnt know that. Well that is awesome, if i got a pic of the B-60 and the B-36, you they will look the same almost.
-
i've actually been inside a b-36's bomb bay, it was HUGE. it was at Nebraska's SAC museum, and it had the 6 props. looks cooler than jets
-
wow i didnt know that. Well that is awesome, if i got a pic of the B-60 and the B-36, you they will look the same almost.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d9/061102-F-1234P-001.jpg/800px-061102-F-1234P-001.jpg)
The B-60 was just a modernized B-36
-
Is there a picture of the YB-60 & the B-52 together? Just to see the difference in size? Man the B-60 was a monster. Sad it was beaten out just because of speed, when they could've added more engines, or different engines :confused:
But owell, we got a big bomber doing its thing anyways :D
-
B-60 Specifications
Specifications
Length 171 ft
Span 206 ft
Weight 150,000lbs
Propulsion eight 9,000lb J57-P-3
Combat Radius 2,910 miles
Max Speed 451 knots
Ceiling 45,000ft
(http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/systems/images/yb-60-line.gif)
B-52 Stratofortress
Specifications
Primary Function: Heavy bomber
Contractor: Boeing Military Airplane Co.
Power Plant: Eight Pratt & Whitney engines TF33-P-3/103 turbofan
Thrust: Each engine up to 17,000 pounds (7,650 kilograms)
Length: 159 feet, 4 inches (48.5 meters)
Height: 40 feet, 8 inches (12.4 meters)
Wingspan: 185 feet (56.4 meters)
Speed: 650 miles per hour (Mach 0.86)
Ceiling: 50,000 feet (15,151.5 meters)
Weight: Approximately 185,000 pounds empty (83,250 kilograms)
Maximum Takeoff Weight: 488,000 pounds (219,600 kilograms)
Range: Unrefueled 8,800 miles (7,652 nautical miles)
Armament:
# NOTE: The B-52 can carry 27 internal weapons. Authoritative sources diverge as to maximum munition loads, with some suggesting as many as 51 smaller munitions and 30 larger munitions, while others suggest maximum loads of 45 and 24, respectively. The Heavy Stores Adaptor Beam [HSAB] external pylon can carry only 9 weapons which limits the total carry to 45 (18 external).
# The AGM-28 pylon could carry lighter weapons like the MK-82 and can carry 12 weapons on each pylon, for a total of 24 external weapons, for a the total of 51. However, the AGM-28 pylon is no longer used, so the B-52 currently carries on HSABs, limiting the external load to 18 bombs, or a total of 45 bombs.
Approximately 70,000 pounds (31,500 kilograms) mixed ordnance -- bombs, mines and missiles.
NUCLEAR
20 ALCM
12 SRAM [ext]
12 ACM [ext]
2 B53 [int]
8 B-61 Mod11 [int]
8 B-83 [int]
CONVENTIONAL
51 CBU-52 (27 int, 18 ext)
51 CBU-58 (27 int, 18 ext)
51 CBU-71 (27 int, 18 ext)
30 CBU 87 (6 int, 18 ext)
30 CBU 89 (6 int, 18 ext)
30 CBU 97 (6 int, 18 ext)
51 M117
18 Mk 20 (ext)
51 Mk 36
8 Mk 41
12 Mk 52
8 Mk 55
8 Mk 56
51 Mk 59
8 Mk 60 (CapTor)
51 Mk. 62
8 Mk. 64
8 Mk 65
51 MK 82
18 MK 84 (ext)
PRECISION
180 GBU-39 SDB (72 ext)
18 JDAM (12 ext)
30 WCMD (16 ext)
8 AGM-84 Harpoon
20 AGM-86C CALCM
8 AGM-142 Popeye [3 ext]
18 AGM-154 JSOW (12 ext)
12 AGM-158 JASSSM [ext]
12 TSSAM
2 MOP / DSHTW / Big BLU
# Systems AN/ALQ-117 PAVE MINT active countermeasures set
# AN/ALQ-122 false target generator [Motorola]
# AN/ALQ-153 tail warning set [Northrop Grumman]
# AN/ALQ-155 jammer Power Management System [Northrop Grumman]
# AN/ALQ-172(V)2 electronic countermeasures system [ITT]
# AN/ALR-20A Panoramic countermeasures radar warning receiver
# AN/ALR-46 digital warning receiver [litton]
# AN/ALT-32 noise jammer
# 12 AN/ALE-20 infra-red flare dispensers
# 6 AN/ALE-24 chaff dispensers
# AN/ANS-136 Inertial Navigation Set
# AN/APN-224 Radar Altimeter
# AN/ASN-134 Heading Reference
# AN/APQ-156 Strategic Radar
# AN/ASQ-175 Control Display Set
# AN/AYK-17 Digital Data Display
# AN/AYQ-10 Ballistics Computer
# AN/AAQ-6 FLIR Electro-optical viewing system
# AN/AVQ-22 Low-light TV Electro-optical viewing system
# AN/ARC-210 VHF/UHF communications
# AN/ARC-310 HF radio communications
# CRM-114 Discriminator
Crew: Five (aircraft commander, pilot, radar navigator, navigator and electronic warfare officer)
Accommodations: Six ejection seats
Unit Cost: $30 million
Date Deployed: February 1955
Inventory: 44 combat-coded
Active force, 85; ANG, 0; Reserve, 9
(http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/systems/images/b-52-line.gif)
-
In Atwater, CA. at the Castle air Museum (former Castle AFB) they have an RB-36 on static display. It dwarfs' every other aircraft there, including the B-52. You can look up in the bomb-bay, it looks almost the size of a railroad freight car inside.