Six Turnin and Four Burnin by Mike Machat

A giant by almost every measurement, the B-36 Peacemaker was a unique aircraft for its time. With a design laid out in the midst of the war years, the B-36 was an engineering and manufacturing marvel when compared to the typical WWII bomber. At 163 feet, the B-36 fuselage was as long as a B-29 and B-17 placed nose to tail. The 230 foot wing span was more than twice that of the B-24. The tip of the rudder was 46 feet 10 inches off the ground, almost the length of the B-25. With six P&W R4360 piston engines and four GE J-47 jet engines, the mammoth bomber could fly at more than 43,000 feet with a top speed of 418 mph. With fuel, weapons and a crew of 16 men, the maximum weight of the bomber reached 410,000 pounds. Typical of the rapid pace of technological developments of the time, the B-36 Peacemaker had a relatively short operational life, with the last model being retired in early 1959. Of the 325 B-36s that were built, only four examples exist today.