# The most Beautiful Airplane we built



## Mat (Dec 14, 2020)

I love this movie because it showed what the Fort Worth area looked like long before I got to my missile base 30 miles south of Carlswell AFB.  I hated to hear that it was closed along with many other bases a few years ago.  This was one of the choices we had for sick call and it was a very quiet base by the time I arrived in 67 to Alvarado.  The Dallas Fort Worth area just consumed the base over time and there was no clear safe flight departure or landing, but also today's aircraft are spread out world wide unlike when this movie was made and it was closed.


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## squatting dog (Dec 15, 2020)

Mat said:


> I love this movie because it showed what the Fort Worth area looked like long before I got to my missile base 30 miles south of Carlswell AFB.  I hated to hear that it was closed along with many other bases a few years ago.  This was one of the choices we had for sick call and it was a very quiet base by the time I arrived in 67 to Alvarado.  The Dallas Fort Worth area just consumed the base over time and there was no clear safe flight departure or landing, but also today's aircraft are spread out world wide unlike when this movie was made and it was closed.



Not until you see the scale of workers and equipment can one understand the size of that bird.


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## oldman (Dec 15, 2020)

Long wingspan equals faster speeds at higher altitudes and much more maneuverable.


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## Lewkat (Dec 15, 2020)

It was a beautiful bird.  Took some doing to get it airborne, but when she flew I could only think of that poem, High Flight by John Gillespie.  Seeing that one night scene in the movie where there is nothing but more clouds and space above them, I can only think of the line, "and touched the face of God."


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## fmdog44 (Dec 16, 2020)

What is the advantage of locating the props behind the wings?


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## Mat (Dec 16, 2020)

No early strategic air command aircraft were intended to be long duration or production.  The Peacemaker was a fast design that could carry the weight of era nuclear weapons.  They used the design to complete the mission, fly high and fast and get to the target.  The fast turn over of all early SAC aircraft was very short because the technology was moving fast and it was the only way to stay ahead of the Russians.  The movie sums all this up with the scenes of the first Jet SAC aircraft coming in while this Peacemaker was still an infant.  The first two Jet SAC bombers were also very short lived because the B-52 finally found the sweet spot and is still the number one bomber, but lost the role of Nuclear delivery when the B-1 and B-2 came on the scene.  The B-1 would be the big dog on the block and can hug the ground less than 500 feet and even climb mountains.  You have to be in front of one skirting a tall mountain with it coming straight towards you to understand just how stealth this B-1 is. In Nevada they practice flying in the many ranges evading radar at Nellis and my first time seeing a B-1.  I actually thought it was a small plane that turned low level in front of me over two miles away, it then came down the bottom of the mountain range to my left and it was directly out my window flying fast and low.  You could not believe how low it was and probably under computer control to climb out and dip over each mountain.  I was way out in the mountain ranges on a game reserve on an old 12 mile rock road.  I also saw A-10s playing while driving to Utah, they too were low leveling in and out of the mountains ranges following the highway.  I guess the Peacemaker was getting better power and mileage using the pusher engines.  It makes for clean air over the lift part of the forward wings.  That all came to an end with the new jet engine bombers, the Russians stole the design for a short time.  It still required Jet assist pods for takeoffs.  Look at the bomber list on this SAC page and you will see all the aircraft that came in at the same era.

http://www.strategic-air-command.com/aircraft/0-aircraft_home_page.htm


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## FastTrax (Dec 16, 2020)

Mat said:


> I love this movie because it showed what the Fort Worth area looked like long before I got to my missile base 30 miles south of Carlswell AFB.  I hated to hear that it was closed along with many other bases a few years ago.  This was one of the choices we had for sick call and it was a very quiet base by the time I arrived in 67 to Alvarado.  The Dallas Fort Worth area just consumed the base over time and there was no clear safe flight departure or landing, but also today's aircraft are spread out world wide unlike when this movie was made and it was closed.



Thanks for this Mat. I always admired Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda when they played roles like this. Very laid back considering the wholesale destruction they had at their disposal.











www.theaviationgeekclub.com/b-36-crew-member-tells-the-story-behind-the-video-of-the-infamous-peacemaker-buzz-job-over-fort-worth-neighborhood/

www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/threads/the-convair-b-36-peacemaker.23848/

www.aerospaceweb.org/aircraft/bomber/b36/

www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/b-36-giant-bomber-deterrence/

www.avgeekery.com/flight-last-b-36-peacemaker/

www.ub88.org/researchprojects/b36peacemaker/thelastb36/the-last-b-36.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_B-36_Peacemaker

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-36_Peacemaker_Museam





















https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jksCT88jib8


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## Pappy (Dec 16, 2020)

I loved the sound of the engines overhead. Low rumble that couldn’t be mistaken for any other plane. At one time, I built a model of this plane, but it got ruined on our move to Florida.


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## Mat (Dec 16, 2020)

I don't believe many tuned into the takeoff, the plane was very flexible and it was really evident in the takeoff by the time time the Assist pods came alive.  This Peacemaker and the B-52 were perplexed with fuel leakage problems due to the flexing.  This like other problems with civil aviation helped to make commercial aircraft safer.  Boeing nailed all of their aircraft of any fuel leakage problems except the one pump shorting that caused the airborne explosion of the flight out over the Atlantic a few years back.  That was due to the tank being empty and fumes igniting in the tank, which is the wing.  All of our B-52s that served in the Vietnam war had to be completely rebuilt due to extreme skin sagging under the wings.  They carried external bomb loads as well as internal.  They were so heavy they had to take off with 25 percent fuel load and refuel midair soon as they all got formed up.  It didn't make much difference since the Russians had trawlers off shore near Okinawa and they would radio Hanoi to tell them when our B-52s were airborne so they knew an attack was coming, but we also had B-52s in Thailand as well so they couldn't get much warning being so close.  When I was a kid one of my favorite models was the Hustler the Jet Nuclear delivery plane of the month.  All were very short lived, it was like they no sooner had all the problems fixed it was taken out of service and sent to the desert in Arizona to be stripped of all the instruments and important materials recycled.  I was lucky and got to see that massive graveyard outside Albuquerque on old Route 66 in the fifties.  It was one huge airplane graveyard...


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## JB in SC (Dec 16, 2020)

My first cousin flew the B-58, that one was pretty cool. Fast and difficult to fly according to him.


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## FastTrax (Dec 16, 2020)

And here I thought the BUFF was ancient. The one thing I have to admire about the B-52 the B-1B and now the B-36 is they don't have to do anything but sit on the flight line and look lethal.


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## Mat (Dec 17, 2020)

If you look at the B-47 it actually look's like a baby B-52.  The design of the B-52 looks pretty much the same but just larger.  We got our money's worth in the B-52 and it is still the most feared bomber today.


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## fmdog44 (Jan 18, 2021)

not my favorite


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