The Bomber That Carries America's Biggest Bunker-Busters Is Getting Major Upgrades

TBI ^ | 8-9-2012 | Michael Kelley

[Chode]

yes... to help his election

[hattend]

Maybe you were thinking of B-36s because there were only 2 B-70 Valkyries built and one crashed.

Although in the 60’s I don’t think many B-36s were still flying.

[yarddog]

I knew an old pilot who flew the B-36s. He told me that was the reason that bases like Eglin had the 14,000 foot runways.

He told me had flown every plane in the Air Force from WWII until the 70s except the B-17 and that included the U-2 and SR-71.

After he retired, he got a job at Ft. Rucker training army pilots. He said when the interviewer asked if he was certified in two engine planed, he told him he was certified for 10 engines (the B-36).

[mkjessup]

I knew this would be a fun thread, so while we're talking about fantastic bombers, first a tip o' the hat to the granddaddy of
the B-2, the Northrop YB-49 Flying Wing ...


AND ... an enjoyable little piece of fiction/alternate history based on "what if" the YB-49 had been selected for use as
SAC's primary strategic bomber ... enjoy!

http://www.ninfinger.org/models/rms_tips/b49alt.hist.html

[Vermont Lt]

They will be able to send and receive text messages? What are they doing? Putting middle school girls in each cockpit?

[norton]

My bad, and you're half right.
B36 was long gone by '65.
I posted B70...should have been B58 since that was the image I responded to.
B70 never made it to the Bone Yard.

Nostalgia: If you looked generally south from Mt. lemon it was like looking into a mirror at about a 45 degree angle.

[lwoodham]

I am dating myself, but I had a college professor that worked on the B58 Hustler design. He claimed that to solve the problem of control when the B58 released it's huge pod that they had to solve an ungodly set of simultaneous equations by hand(before modern computers). He said it took 1000's and 1000's of man hours to solve the equations and that they had over 100 working on the equation set.

When the test pilot hit the pod release button he claimed that it had malfunctioned, because he was expecting a huge change in aerodynamics. It had actually released and their solution to the equations was spot on so that the plane transitioned perfectly and was stable.