Convair B-36 ‘Peacemaker’

The U.S. armed forces had a difficult time acquiring money to keep well supplied and ready to defend their homeland. The Japanese and Germans were well aware of our predicament and had plans take advantage of this fact.

The commercial world knew in the 1930s, that new and better planes were needed to carry the rapidly increasing passengers. Most aircraft were too slow and carried too few passengers for the airlines to be profitable. In 1933, Douglas Aircraft designed the DC-1. Due to the need for sleeping and daytime customers, it put sleeping facilities in the DC-1 to serve the luxury sleeper. Also a day-time plane was built with 21 seats instead of 14 berths and the DC-3 was born. When World War II began, the federal government modified this plane for troop transport and hauling cargo. This became one of the most successful planes ever made. Since 1936, 803 commercial transports and 10,123 military versions have been built.

The military knew they needed a better bomber than it had in the early 1930s and out of this concern the “Flying Fortress” (Boeing-B17) was developed to protect the U.S. mainland from invasion. The plane had four 1,200 horsepower Wright Cyclone R1820-97 radial engines. With a wing span of 103 feet and a length of 74 feet it had a range of 2,000 miles. It carried 13 .50 caliber machine guns and 6,000 pounds of bombs. It proved to very effective and, during the war, 12,731 were built. One of the big problems with the B-17 was that its bombing range outstripped the protection that smaller planes could give and many were downed by the Germans until late 1943 when the Lockheed P-38s were available to escort the bombers. In late 1930s, the B-17s were located in San Diego but were ordered to fly to Hawaii to assume duty there in case of a Japanese attack that had been rumored to possibly happen soon. Their flight to Hawaii went OK but, as they approached Hawaii, the Japanese were already attacking. Due to somebody’s oversight, these B-17s were not armed and most were destroyed almost immediately. The Americans were able to muster up six fighter planes by now and began engaging in dogfights almost immediately. At about the same time as the attack on Hawaii occurred, the Philippines were being invaded by the Japanese and the remaining B-17s that the United States had were destroyed.

The Japanese declared war on the United States in December 1941 with the Germans doing the same shortly after this. On Jan. 7, 1942, President Roosevelt proposed a budget which would fund the production of 125,000 aircraft, 75,000 tanks, 35,000 guns and 8 million tons of shipping by the end of 1943. This was a huge order for a country that had its industry geared for production of civilian merchandise. Immediately, all civilian car production halted. There would be no more new cars for the public for the duration of the war.

Things looked bleak in 1941 and 1942 for England. The Germans had marked England for its next conquest. If this were to happen, America would lose strategic landing strips for bombing Germany.

With this motivating them, the military ordered a plane that could bomb Germany from bases in the United States. This was a huge order and marked entrance of the first intercontinental bomber, and the largest aircraft to date, to be designed. It was to span 230 feet with a length of 163 feet and a height of 46 feet. Armament included 50 cal. machine guns and five 37 mm cannon plus 77,784 pounds of bombs. Specs went out for a plane that could achieve 450 mph top speed, and a service ceiling of 45,000 feet with a maximum range of 12,000 miles at 25,000 feet. These requirements were scaled down with the maximum range of 10,000 miles. Cruising speed was cut to somewhere 240 and 300 mph. It was finally decided to use six engines instead of four, using the pusher tractor engine from Pratt & Whitney radial Wasp Motors that could generate 3,000 horsepower each. Specifications were constantly changed in the two XB-36s that were constructed in San Diego.

The plane was so heavy that only three airfields in the United States could let it take off and land. The tires were made by Goodyear and they were 110 inches in diameter and 35 inches in width and weighed 1,230 pounds. After first takeoff, it was obvious that more tires would be needed to carry the loaded plane down a runway without breaking up the cement in the runway.

In 1945, the wars were over and the plane was in its last phases of construction. With the war with Germany and Japan over, another danger entered the world. The Cold War with Russia began and the B-36 was perfect to carry nuclear and regular bombs around the world. The Strategic Air Command received its first B-36 for operational use. By August 1954, more than 380 B-36s had been built for the U.S. Air Force. In 1958-59, the B-36 was replaced by the more modern B-52.

Rediscovering the Peninsula by Darold Fredricks appears in the Monday edition of the Daily Journal.