The Peacemaker

No, I’m not talking about the old Colt .45 sixgun, but I am reaching back a few years.  The Peacemaker in question is the United States Air Force B-36.   Quite an airplane, the B-36 was.   It was the world’s largest piston-engined combat aircraft, and it had a wingspan larger than a Boeing 747.  Six radial piston engines, four jet engines, and engineering that was something right out of science fiction movie.   I came across this YouTube video a little while ago and I thought I would share it with you.

The above scene was filmed at Carswell Air Force Base just outside of Fort Worth, Texas.  The B-36 was built by Convair (which became General Dynamics, which became Lockheed, which became Lockheed Martin), and they shared the runway with Carswell AFB.  I worked at General Dynamics when I got out of the Army (I was on the engineering team that designed the F-16) and I really got excited when I watched the video…the buildings you see in the background during the B-36 takeoff are the General Dynamics plant.   It’s a pretty cool airplane and General Dynamics was a great place to start an engineering career.  The guy I worked for there (an old timer named Lou Rackley) had actually been on the B-36 design team.  The old guys had a lot of cool B-36 stories, and ultimately, General Dynamics restored a B-36 and parked it along the expressway leading into the factory.  That plane was enormous.  Good times.