Key facts
- Type
- Strategic bomber
- National origin
- United States
- Manufacturer
- Convair
- Primary user
- United States Air Force
- Manufactured
- 1946–1954
- First flight
- 8 August 1946
- Retired
- 12 February 1959
- Variants
- Convair XC-99 , Convair NB-36H
- Developed into
- Convair YB-60 , Convair X-6
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Image
- Convair B-36 Peacemaker.jpg
Show 6 more facts
- Commons category
- Convair B-36 Peacemaker
- Commons gallery
- B-36 Peacemaker
- total produced
- 384
- first flight
- 1946-08-08
- service entry
- 1949-00-00
- service retirement
- 1959-00-00
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~40 min read
Article
The Convair B-36 "Peacemaker" was a piston-engined strategic bomber built by Convair and operated by the United States Air Force's Strategic Air Command from 1948 to 1959. With 384 units built, the B-36 remains the largest mass-produced piston-engined aircraft, and has the longest wingspan of any combat aircraft. The B-36 was capable of intercontinental flight without refueling.
The B-36 was powered by six Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major radial piston engines. The B-36D through J variants were fitted further with four General Electric J47 turbojet engines, totalling ten, the most engines of any mass-produced aircraft. The B-36 was the primary nuclear weapons delivery vehicle of the United States. The B-36 was the only bomber assigned the largest of the cumbersome first generation of US thermonuclear gravity bombs, the Mark 14 (5 to 7 megatons), and the Mark 17 and Mark 24 (15 to 20 megatons). It was also assigned the fission-based Mark 6 and Mark 18 and the conventional T-12 Cloudmaker earthquake bomb.