The Plane That Threatened The World With Nuclear War | Story of the Convair B-36 | Timeline

hi everybody and welcome to this documentary on timeline my name is dan snow and i want to tell you about history hit tv it's like the netflix for history hundreds of exclusive documentaries and interviews with the world's best historians we've got an exclusive offer available to fans of timeline if you go to history hit tv you can either follow the information below this video or just google history hit tv and use the code timeline you get a special introductory offer go and check it out in the meantime enjoy this video [Music] the story of the b-36 is unique in american aviation history it survived near cancellations on six separate occasions and was the symbol of a bitter inter-service rivalry between the newly formed air force and the well-established navy over who would control delivery of atomic weapons during the early years of the cold war and consequently who would receive the lion's share of the defense budget [Music] in early 1941 with world war ii raging in europe the united states army air corps or usac had concerns regarding the range of its bomber force with the fall of britain still a potential reality it would require a bomber with transcontinental capability and sufficient range to strike targets in europe from bases in newfoundland to fill this need it issued specifications for a very long-range bomber in 1941. only two contractors picked up this challenge consolidated and boeing after a brief design competition consolidated won the development contract ultimately designating the project xb36 consolidated promised a prototype within 30 months with a second to follow six months later this timetable soon was disrupted by the united states entry into world war ii with the bombing of pearl harbor consolidated was ordered to slow the project in favor of focusing on the production of the b-24 liberator the size and power of the airplane can only be described with words like huge and enormous given the normal reaction of people who first viewed the prototype many had taken to calling it the jesus airplane the b-36 commanded all from all who saw and heard it everything about the b-36 was larger than life and difficult to describe the sheer scope and size of the plane were only matched by the press releases and propaganda unleashed by the air force and convair to keep the media frenzy alive and the soviets nervous convair then announced the b-36 would carry its own defensive jet fighters as many as four inside its massive bomb bays the relentless propaganda campaign was an unqualified success the army air forces effectively used the b-36 to intimidate the soviet union even before the first operational airplane had been delivered during its brief but breathtaking career the b-36 never fired a shot in anger but that doesn't mean it wasn't successful on its mission of deterrence of the soviet union during the cold war in truth the fact that it never fired a shot or dropped a bomb may prove just how successful the program was however with advances in technology and the advent of jet interceptors capable of reaching high altitude such as the mig-15 the b-36's brief career came to a close assessing american needs after the korean war president dwight d eisenhower directed resources to the strategic air command which allowed for the accelerated replacement of the b-29s with the b-47s as well as large orders of the new b-52 stratofortresses to replace the b-36s as the b-52s began entering servers in 1955 large numbers of the b-36s were retired and scrapped by 1959 the b-36 had been removed from service [Music] the history of the b-36 is indelibly tied to fort worth texas and to the plant that produced it officially known as government aircraft plant four and you can't mention fort worth texas without talking about its biggest booster and champion eamon g carter carter was the owner and publisher of the fort worth star telegram he abided a great love of fort worth and selfless philanthropy a near obsession with aviation and a deep-seated disdain for neighboring dallas the larger more metropolitan city 30 miles to the east star telegram and carter's influence stretched far and wide in 1936 an article in the amarillo globe read west texas is bound on the north by colorado and oklahoma on the west by new mexico on the south by mexico and on the east by eamon carter but carter's power and influence stretched well beyond west texas in fact his power could not be ignored even in washington dc in 1939 president roosevelt described american military air power as utterly inadequate and requested congress to provide 300 million dollars for the purchase of 3 000 aircraft for the army however due to the seemingly invincible air power and anti-aircraft capabilities of nazi germany it seemed heavy losses of the aircraft and crew were inevitable so these projects skyrocketed and roosevelt ordered production of 50 thousand aircraft american aircraft producers were woefully unprepared to meet this capacity leading the federal government to establish the defense plant corporation which provided funds to private companies to enable them to build or expand plants fearing a possible attack by japan roosevelt proclaimed a zone of the interior that was 200 miles within the coast and borders of the united states the war department ordered all new defense plants to be built inland consolidated aircraft was founded by ruben hollis fleet in 1923. consolidated had two aircraft the pby catalina an amphibious patrol airplane and the b-24 bomber that would prove essential to the war effort fleet needed an inland location adjacent to a lake to build his new assembly plan carter had become acquainted with fleet during his frequent flights on pan-american world airways and was determined fort worth would be consolidated new location however this was not the only connection carter had at his disposal in 1939 jesse holman jones was appointed head of the reconstruction finance corporation and in 1940 head of the defense plant corporation carter and jones had been friends and political allies since the 20s roosevelt gave jones the authority to spend up to 500 million dollars without the approval of the president or congress the freedom to spend such large sums of money with little to no government oversight earned jones the reputation of being the fourth branch of government lastly president roosevelt's daughter anna and son elliot both lived in fort worth and fdr became a frequent visitor to the city so carter was well connected to lure his aircraft plant and because fort worth was home to an army aircraft training base in world war one it already had the required infrastructure consolidated however seemed more interested in fort worth's rival to the east dallas site surveyors from consolidated arrived in dallas on november 1939 and identified a site located west of hensley reserve airfield on mountain creek lake which appeared to meet all their requirements an agreement was reached between consolidated and dallas contingent upon a pending merger between consolidated and the hall aluminum aircraft company fort worth was in dire economic straits at the time the dust bowl had decimated agriculture in the region and like the rest of the country the great depression had sent the local economy into a tailspin fort worth needed the large war material factory to avert a seemingly inevitable economic collapse carter took action as soon as he heard of consolidated's intention of building in dallas he hired an engineering firm to perform a study of mountain creek site and a comparative study of the two fort worth sites lake worth and eagle mountain lake the study concluded that the fluctuations in the water level of the dallas site would render it useless during dry periods and texas is known for its frequent periods of drought however because of a series of dams on the trinity river the water levels of both fort worth sites could be steadily maintained carter mailed the report to consolidate it in the end all the maneuvering was needless and consolidated's merger with hall fell through and another company north american aviation took the dallas site and built p-51s b-24s and b-25s but that still did not mean fort worth would get its aircraft plant or consolidate it the defense plant corporation announced a list of approved cities from which consolidated could choose one preferred and one alternate location for building the new plant fort worth was not on the government approved list of cities it took incessant and heavy cajoling and political maneuvering from carter and fleet along with a massive public relations campaign to finally get fort worth approved for the consolidated plan after being pressured by carter vice president john nance garner said that man wants the entire government of the united states to run for the exclusive benefit of fort worth and if possible to the detriment of dallas finally on march 8 1941 the war department awarded contracts for the construction of aircraft plants at kansas city tulsa and fort worth and consolidated stated the fort worth plant would be significantly large enough to produce an aircraft that would dwarf the 50 000 pound b-24 in june of 1941 construction began on government aircraft plant 4 in fort worth in december of that same year the japanese bombed pearl harbor ending the united states position of neutrality in world war ii and the largest arms buildup in history officially began construction of government aircraft plant four took less than nine months consolidated accepted the plant on january 1st 1942 and began work on the first b-24 they employed a workforce of 25 000 people mostly local farmers with limited mechanical and manufacturing skills the biggest problem however was transportation automobile and bus production had been halted for the war effort and gasoline was severely rationed the fort worth transit company used converted automobile transport trailers as makeshift buses to move thousands of workers to and from the plant from all over the city and surrounding counties for the first two decades after it was built government aircraft plant four was intrinsically linked to the production of heavy bombers the army air forces accepted its first fort worth b-24 on may 1st 1942 and the last on december 30th 1944. during this time fort worth built 3034 liberators and its derivations with a peak production of 200 per month by the end of the war 114 larger b-32s had been added to the number of heavy bombers produced in fort worth however because of the changing needs of the military the next bomber would be much larger despite the relative success of the aerial bombardment during world war ii it was not obvious at the beginning that the campaign would be possible much less successful during the early days of 1941 it appeared great britain might quickly fall to the german onslaught and leave the united states without any bases outside the western hemisphere consequently the united states decided to develop an aircraft that could attack targets in europe from airfields in north america the army air corps drafted requirements for a very heavy bomber with a 450 mile an hour top speed at 25 000 feet a 275 mile an hour cruising speed a surface ceiling of 45 000 feet and a maximum range of twelve thousand miles at twenty five thousand feet the aircraft needed to be carrying ten thousand pounds of bombs over a radius of five thousand miles or maximum load of 72 000 pounds over a much shorter distance given the available technology they were ambitious requirements during the early 1940s the concept of aerial refueling was not considered practical for operational aircraft although numerous generally successful experiments had been conducted beginning as early as 1918 this meant that the new bomber of necessity would be very large if for no other reason than to accommodate the required fuel requests for preliminary designs were released to boeing aircraft company and consolidated aircraft in 1941. preliminary design data was submitted by boeing for their models 384 and 385 and consolidated for the model 35 multi-engine long-range bombardment type airplane the results were not encouraging since neither manufacturer could meet all of the requirements in an attempt to accelerate the bomber project the military relaxed many of the requirements however the revised specifications were still a tall order a cruising speed of between 240 and 300 miles an hour a forty thousand foot service ceiling a range of ten thousand miles and an effective combat radius of four thousand miles with a ten thousand pound bomb load despite the reduction from the earlier specifications this was still four times the combat radius of the boeing b-17 flying fortress while carrying more than twice the bomb load the army air forces decided the consolidated design was the most promising largely because although it represented progressive engineering it contained no unusual engineering features that might make its construction doubtful consolidated estimated that the development and manufacture of the two experimental very long range bombers would cost 15 million dollars in november 1941 the army issued a contract for two xb36 experimental aircraft the first airplane was to be delivered in may 1944 and the second in november although the aircraft was generally similar to the original model 35 there were sufficient differences for consolidated to assign the aircraft a new model number 36 conveniently the same as the official designation [Music] by mid-1944 the military situation in the pacific had improved significantly the marianas campaign was near its end and preparations were being made to deploy b-29s to attack the japanese homelands the army no longer believed that a very long-range bomber was urgently needed but nevertheless signed a 160 million dollar contract for 100 production aircraft in august 1944 the schedule for the xb36 was unchanged and the first production b-36 was to be delivered in august 1945 with the last arriving in october 1946 only now the contract did not carry any priority at all causing fear that the schedule would not be met however following the surrender of germany and the end of the war in europe memories of the bloody pacific island hopping battles were fresh and the contracts for the very long-range b-36 were untouched on september 8 1945 one month after the japanese surrender and almost six years after the original contract had been signed the xb36 was rolled out in fort worth at the time it was expected that the final outfitting and taxi test would consume the next six months however eight months later in may 1946 secretary of war robert p patterson told a house subcommittee that the aircraft was due to fly next month a prediction that would be repeated several times during the summer finally the aircraft made its maiden flight on august 8 1946 it was the largest and heaviest aircraft ever flown and the 37-minute flight was generally uneventful early test flights confirmed that the aircraft's top speed was only about 320 miles per hour the xb36 was used for aerodynamic and systems testings but lacked any military equipment and did not represent the production configuration on monday march 22 1948 convair officials announced that the seventh bombardment wing at carswell air force base on the other side of the runway from the convair plant would become the first operational unit for the b-36 when the first of the 100 aircraft was delivered sometime this week however the announcement proved premature as ongoing modifications to the aircraft delayed its delivery more than three months finally in april 1948 the tide began to turn and the b-36 was able to demonstrate its potential in april a b-36a made a 33-hour 10-minute flight covering 6922 miles shuttling between fort worth and san diego unfortunately problems with the two engines limited the average cruising speed to a disappointing 214 miles per hour on june 26 1948 the first b-36a to be delivered to the strategic air command was taxied under its own power from consolidated volte to the seventh bomb wing at carswell the airplane was named the city of fort worth and was assigned to the 492nd bomb squadron in 1947 construction had begun on a new base in limestone maine to accommodate the b-36 while plans were being made for additional b-36 groups to be based at rapid city south dakota and fairfield swiss in california even given the long-range capability of the b-36 the airplane could not attack all of its targets directly from the normal bases in the united states in response the air force selected a series of pre-strike staging bases in the far north with flight paths that took them near or over the north pole a route that caused new problems the magnetic compasses that were still being used as the primary navigation tool at the time did not function well in extreme latitudes as a result the project global electronics modification or project gym was initiated to provide equipment for worldwide navigation as well as various cold weather modifications b-29s and b-50s also received air-to-air refueling capabilities as part of jim after suitable polar navigation equipment was installed the seventh bomb wing began deploying b-36bs to bases in goose bay labrador limestone and fairbanks alaska these aircraft had their wingtips and empanadas painted bright red in case they were forced down in rough terrain or snow in a maximum range demonstration a b-36b from the seventh bomb wing flew a 35-hour round-trip simulated bombing mission from carswell to hawaii on december 7th and 8th 1948. ten thousand pound bomb load of dummy bombs was dropped in the ocean a short distance from hawaii the flight covered more than eight thousand one hundred miles the average cruising speed was only 236 miles per hour nevertheless this proved the b-36 given the right circumstances could attack almost any target in the world interestingly the b-36 penetrated hawaiian airspace without being detected by the defensive forces on the islands an embarrassment they did not appreciate since it came seven years to the day after pearl harbor a 10 000 mile mission was undoubtedly possible under ideal conditions although confidence building these missions were not truly representative of the state of the b-36 fleet during 1949 sac rarely had more than 40 b-36s on hand and only five to eight of these were considered operationally capable the seventh bomb wing was in essence a service test unit similar to the b-36a many of the b-36b's initial problems resembled those of any other new and complex aircraft part shortages were acute and it was often necessary to cannibalize some of the b-36b to keep others flying by the end of 1950 three accidents involving carswell-based b-36b's had claimed the lives of 12 airmen each accident being the result of equipment failure the first accident on september 16 1949 was a result a propeller pitch reversal that caused the b-36b to crash into lake worth at the end of the carswell runway the second crash on february 14 1950 in canada was determined to be a result of engine icing the third crash was a result of multiple equipment failures that exemplified the many problems plaguing the new bomber the b-36 probably spent more time in maintenance and modification programs than any other operational aircraft of the era much of this had to do with the pace of technical change during the early 1950s new weapons and electronics were constantly being added to the aircraft in particular the first 95 airplanes spent a majority of their early careers being modified in june 1953 convair announced that it would be initiating an unprecedented program of prime importance to the entire aircraft industry the hyperbole referred to project samsack specialized aircraft maintenance and strategic air command a continuing maintenance and modernization program which eventually encompassed all b-36 aircraft the goal of samsack was to standardize the b-36 fleet around a set number of configurations allowing parts to be interchanged more easily and for maintenance procedures to be standardized the program meant that roughly 25 b-36s would be undergoing heavy maintenance at fort worth constantly through 1957. [Music] the war in europe ended officially on may 8 1945 but the allied forces included in the united states continued to maintain a military peacekeeping presence in most of the defeated territories during the war the united states had established numerous air bases throughout europe north africa and parts of the middle east and opted to maintain control over them to provide communication and supply lines for its post-war occupation forces when it became clear the soviets intended to force the allied powers out of berlin before overthrowing turkey and greece the united states began transforming its occupation forces into a combat ready organization the new organization composed of the eighth air force and 15th air force was named the united states air forces in europe on august 7 1945 one day after the atomic bombing of hiroshima and one month before the xb36 rolled out at the government aircraft plant four the united states air forces in europe and its many air bases near the soviet union and the middle east would soon become vital components of cold war b-36 operations on march 5th 1946 prime minister winston churchill delivered his now famous iron curtain speech that confirmed a serious ideological breach between the soviet union and the western democracies this speech permanently galvanized east and west relationships and is credited by some historians as the beginning of the cold war on august 3rd 1947 only eight days after truman established the u.s air force soviet premier joseph stalin dramatically revealed to the world during the aviation day parade at moscow's tashino airport the first of a planned fleet of tuple of tu4 long-range heavy bombers the tu4 had made its maiden flight on may 19 1947 and was for all intents a copy of the boeing b-29 super fortress when the new bomber became operational it would allow the soviets to strike any target in europe and asia and return to bases in russia by launching one-way suicide attacks the bombers could strike cities within the continental united states even though it was believed the soviets were still many years from having a nuclear weapon the realization that they had developed capabilities to produce long-range heavy bombers was an alarming revelation to western military planners nevertheless the tu4 would not enter active service until 1949 the impact of stalin's propaganda spectacular was short-lived on that same sunday in 1947 as the sun rose over texas only a few hours later a crowd in excess of 50 000 people began arriving at the army air force's day open house that would showcase the yb-36a on march 18 1948 president truman announced plans to increase the capability of the armed forces present with truman was secretary of defense james b forestall who said if russian forces should move into germany or other parts of europe we could not stop them as deliveries of the b-36s from air force plant four continued sac began displaying its new might in addition to participating in air shows the seventh bomb wing flew six b-36as on a maximum effort mission on september 17th and 18th in 1948 to key cities in the united states giving the public and the soviet spies a first look at the world's largest bomber five routes were flown with each terminating back at carswell concurrently with this flight propaganda blitz consolidated placed advertisements in many major newspapers and magazines around the world full pages were bought to display pictures and descriptions of the new bomber during the maximum effort to deliver the first 18 b-36bs consolidated announced a company-wide contest to name the b-36 the aircraft was known and consolidated at the time only as the battle plane the name the plane contest winners were announced on wednesday april 14 1949 prizes and certificates were awarded to the winners of the contest the certificate read in part since the ultimate purpose of the b-36 aircraft is to secure and maintain peace throughout the world we the undersigned judges have unanimously selected peacemaker for more than 600 suggestions and have respectfully recommended that the united states air force adopt the name as official for the b-36 the name however never became official several religious groups objected to the name peacemaker arguing that there is only one true peacemaker and he was not built by consolidated volte in the end the air force disapproved the name and the b-36 served its career with only a designation on august 29 1949 the soviet union conducted its first test of a fission bomb the public met this announcement with great interest but the united states military strategists were not particularly alarmed by the development at the time it was known the soviets had no reasonable means of deploying the weapon and it would be several years until they could probably the most serious setback to the readiness of the b-36 force came on labor day monday september 1st 1952 while b-36s from the 7th and 11th bomb wings sat parked at carswell air force base surprisingly the attack came not from the soviet union or even from the u.s navy but from a source much more deadly and harder to predict various maintenance procedures were being carried out and most of the aircraft were parked and not tied down the weather forecast called for thunderstorms and gusty winds not unusual for texas during the summer at 6 42 pm a tornado made a direct hit on the base and scattered the aircraft as if they were toys as the storm subsided approximately two-thirds of the american very heavy bomber fleet lay incapacitated thankfully most of the personnel were off the base for the long labor day weekend and there were few injuries the base was immediately closed from fear of a major fire as thousands of gallons of high octane aviation gasoline spilled from the ruptured fuel tanks and washed across the airfield flight operations were hurriedly transferred to other bases and to nearby meacham field not surprisingly the original news accounts of the damage were less than accurate for instance the convair employee newspaper reported that one b-36 had been destroyed which was correct and that a number were damaged which was a gross understatement the paper also reported that nine b-36s at convair had been damaged including four that sustained severe damage after they were rocked back on their tail sections one aircraft had been virtually destroyed and 82 others were damaged including 10 at the convair plant across the runway 24 of those were considered seriously damaged upon receiving the news the strategic air command removed the 19th air division from the war plan starting at dawn the next day the air force made a thorough assessment of damage and called for a meeting of the upper air force staff to develop a repair plan the air force approved the repair plan and a one-page letter contract was executed for a pair of two aircraft by colonel jim ferry and august eisenwine president of convair fort worth division never before had an air force contracting officer issued a one-page letter contract authorizing several million dollars worth of work within 10 days of the storm the seventh bomb wing was declared operationally ready interestingly enough by the end of september the two bomb wings at carswell were operating more aircraft than before the storm on january 27 1953 the fort worth star telegram reported that on november 1st 1952 a b-36 from carswell had dropped a thermonuclear weapon at inuatakatol the newspaper said the freshly painted airplane was scarred and blistered upon its return to carswell unfortunately as with many things reported in the newspaper this was not completely correct there indeed had been a test of a thermonuclear device on november 1st shock mike of operation ivy was detonated at inuit however the 10.4 megaton device was too heavy to be airdropped and was detonated on the ground nevertheless a b-36h did conduct the first drop of a live thermonuclear weapon on november 16th as part of shot king the prototype mk18 super or alloy bomb was released from 40 000 feet using the y3a periscopic bomb site remarkably the bomb was only 215 feet from the aiming point when it exploded at the altitude of 1480 feet with a yield of 500 kiloton hostilities in korea ended on july 27 1953 after claiming more than 50 000 american lives the north koreans had participated in the cease-fire negotiations on three previous occasions only to be followed by major military offensives it appeared their peace talks were part of an ongoing ploy to win military victory in the conflict by gaining time to rearm to prevent this from being repeated one month after the truce was signed president eisenhower ordered sac to deploy b-36s from the 92nd bomb wing fairchild to the far east visiting bases in japan okinawa and guang operation big stick was a 30-day exercise that dramatically demonstrated u.s determination to keep peace in the region the operation also fulfilled convair's stated purpose of the b-36 the ultimate purpose of the b-36 aircraft is to secure and maintain peace throughout the world as a further demonstration of power on october 15th and 16th 1953 the 92nd bomb wing made a 90-day deployment to guam marking the first time an entire b-36 wing had deployed overseas in 1954 hollywood descended on carswell to produce what has since become a cult classic amongst military aviation fans paramount pictures brought jimmy stewart june allison frank lovejoy and harry morgan to fort worth to film strategic air command a propaganda film that also starred the b-36 opening day of the film was similar to that of other epic films of the time such as been her the ten commandments and spartacus with blocks long lines forming for tickets long before at shady oak farm a special private viewing of the film was made available for eamon carter the death bed viewing of this film that featured actors who had been guests in his home was the last movie mr carter ever saw in may 1946 the air force initiated the nuclear energy for the propulsion of aircraft or nepa project to support developing long-range strategic bombers and other high-performance aircraft when the atomic energy commission was created in january 1947 the fate of the military nepa effort became uncertain and the program was continued mainly to allow time for the atomic energy commission to devise its own strategy in may 1951 the aircraft nuclear propulsion program a joint effort between the aec and the air force to develop a full-scale aircraft reactor and engine system effectively replaced the nepa project another factor that led to the a p program was a 1948 mit study that concluded nuclear aircraft were likely less difficult than nuclear ramjets which in turn would be less difficult than nuclear rockets to develop ironically the opposite proved to be the case as an operational level atomic aircraft power plant was never developed the principal concerns would be a accidents which caused the release of fission products from the reactors and b the dosage from exposure to leakage of radioactivity it was subsequently decided that the risks caused by radiation under normal circumstances were no greater than the risk that had been incurred during the development of steam and electrical power the airplane the automobile or the rocket the consequences of an accident however could be severe in the end the program had simply been around too long while producing too few results on march 28 1961 president john f kennedy issued a statement cancelling the aircraft nuclear propulsion program in it he wrote nearly 15 years and about 1 billion dollars have been devoted to the attempted development of a nuclear-powered aircraft but the possibility of achieving a military useful aircraft in the foreseeable future is still very remote [Music] 50 years after it was retired question remains of just how vulnerable was the b-36 despite claims the b-36 was too slow to perform its mission in reality it was one of the fastest piston engine bombers built nevertheless as the jet age dawned the bomber appeared slow in comparison to what came next regardless of its actual speed capabilities the air force claimed that the b-36 could fly at altitudes that contemporary fighters could not easily or routinely achieve the air force contended that when a fighter did manage to get to 45 000 feet it was usually as slow or slower than the bomber and often unable to maneuver except on essentially ballistic trajectory the b-36 large wing area allowed it to be fairly maneuverable at high altitudes and the standard defense against a fighter attack was to make a sharp turn something the fighter could not follow the mission profile of the b-36 assumed it would meet little or no opposition until it was within 500 miles of its target when the bomber finally reached 45 000 feet this logic in retrospect appears flawed but may not have been moscow is approximately 500 miles inside the soviet border when approaching from friendly or at least neutral territory to the north approaching directly from sea without overflying other countries moscow is about 850 miles from the northern coast the mig-15 was specifically designed to intercept the boeing b-29 super fortress and was evaluated in mock air-to-air combat trials against an interred xus b-29 and a soviet-built tu-4 copy of the bomber perhaps the mig-15s greatest inadequacy as an interceptor was a lack of radar the pilot relied on ground-controlled intercept directions to get him within proximity of the bombers and his optical gun sight to aim then soviet radar needed to provide approximately 30 minutes notice to allow the fighters to climb to 45 000 feet and that assumes the bombers were passing nearly over the fighter base this means the radar would need to detect the bomber 175 to 225 miles from the base this was likely possible even given the primitive radar of the era despite repeated air force claims that radar could not detect an aircraft flying at forty thousand feet however at the time radar was useful primarily for establishing azimuth not necessarily height if the fighters were waiting at the wrong altitude it might not be possible for them to correct especially if the bombers were higher while the bomber was still within range and before the fighters ran out of fuel unsurprisingly the evidence seems to support the contention that both sides highlighted their strengths and downplayed their weaknesses by 1952 jet fighters were undoubtedly capable of climbing to the operation altitudes used by the b-36 although their endurance and maneuverability at those altitudes are more in question however the fighter advocates usually ignored the limited endurance of the fighters along with the fact that successfully engaging the bombers required precise timing to ensure the fighters were at the right place at the right altitude at the right time 50 miles 5000 feet or five minutes or possibly all deal breakers despite the 1951 proclamation by curtis lemay that the b-36 was a mature weapon system in reality it took several more years to reach that status by the end of 1954 the b-36 was deployed with 11 operational wings and routinely rotated through fort worth san diego and san antonio for major maintenance as part of the san san and sam sac programs the b-36 was the only aircraft capable of carrying any nuclear weapon in the inventory particularly the first stockpiled thermonuclear weapons such as the mk-17 unfortunately by 1954 it was obvious that the b-36 was also becoming quite vulnerable to the latest jet fighters and that its high altitude capabilities were no longer sufficient compensation for its relatively slow speeds the end of the b-36 was much like the beginning protracted and somewhat confused by 1953 the air force had decided to phase out the b-36 in favor of the new boeing b-52 stratofortress the b-36 was certainly outmoded by then and the b-52 promised a quantum leap in performance but it would come at a tremendous cost in time and money and its development lagged several years in february 1956 the b-36 fleet finally began to be replaced by the b-52s but defensive cutbacks in fiscal year 1957 and fiscal year 1958 slowed b-52 procurement and caused the final phase-out date for the b-36 to be changed from the end of 1957 to the end of 1959 nevertheless in february 1956 the first early model of the b-36s began arriving at davis mauthan air force base outside tucson arizona over the next 37 months a two-step process would reclaim everything usable from the airplanes the first step removed parts from each aircraft that would eventually find use on still operational b-36s and other aircraft types the second step used a large guillotine to chop the airframe into pieces small enough to fit into portable ovens and smelt it into ingots fortunately four b-36s and the xc99 were selected for preservation and given to various museums around the country with destruction of the b-36 fleet underway carswell's 11th bomb wing was reassigned to the second air force 19th division on december 13 1957 and was moved to altus air force base oklahoma a transfer of carswell's seventh bomb wing b-36s to various sack wings began during january 1958 and ended on may 30th 1958 when the last b-36 left the base on that day a ceremony was held that featured a flyover of the b-36 its replacement b-52 and convair's new mach 2 bomber the b-58 hustler making the ceremony's final speech was eamonn gary carter son of the late eamon g carter by december 1958 only 22 b-36js remained in the operational inventory all with the 95th bomb wing at biggs air force base on february 12 1959 the final b-36 built the b-36j flew the last official b-36 mission from biggs to eamonn carter field in fort worth where it was put on public display at the end of operation sayonara the retirement of this b-36 marked the beginning of a new era sac became an all-jet bomber force on that day the first b-52 assigned to the seventh bomb wing arrived at carswell on june 19 1958 the wing continued deterrence operations until being transferred during 1965 to southeast asia in support of the vietnam war and later returned to carswell at the end of that conflict the wing then moved to dyess air force base in abilene texas and carswell air force base closed to later reopen as naval air station joint reserve base fort worth at carswell field while the effectiveness of the b-36 in combat and its ability to efficiently carry out bombing raids will never be known its primary goal of acting as a deterrent to possible soviet aggression was achieved while never officially named the peacemaker the b-36 was certainly deserving of the moniker and played an important role for the united states military during the tense and dangerous times of the cold war

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

Views: 210,303

Rating: 4.6564336 out of 5

Keywords: History, Full Documentary, Documentaries, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic, 2017 documentary, BBC documentary, Channel 4 documentary, history documentary, documentary history, convair-b36, peacemaker, nuclear bomber, american aircraft, aeronautical engineering, aviation engineerging, aviation documentary

Id: 5NvnbpJeHrE

Length: 55min 42sec (3342 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 29 2020