The first arrival in the UK of the USAF’s gargantuan Convair B-36 Peacemaker bomber was covered by ‘The Aeroplane’ 70 years ago, with the reporter suitably impressed
The B-36 was a massive bomber in every sense, even to the extent that there was a tunnel system in the wing to give the crew access to the engines in flight! Conceived in 1940 when there was a concern that the UK may be successfully invaded by German forces and that America could have to fight the Nazis from the continental United States, the B-36 had a range of 10,000 miles. However, the bomber didn’t take to the air until 1946 and it was another two years before Strategic Air Command received its first operational example. By then, there was a new foe with the B-36 playing its part as a deterrent and so ensuring a new world war didn’t erupt this time between the Soviet Union and the West.
