[Milsurplus] B 36 bombers.

[Gary Pewitt]

When I was a very young kid I lived at Edwards AFB near the end of the 
longest runway.  They were running max load tests on the B-36's and took 
off with around 84,000 lbs of concrete bombs.  Six turning and four 
burning and the engines were -not- synchronized so they could get the 
absolute maximum power out.  When they reached our end of the runway 
they woke -everybody- up and things started vibrating and furniture 
walked across the floor.  Instead of the musical droning sound of normal 
flight they had a WOW WOW WOW effect that was frightening at least to a 
little kid in the middle of the night.  My stepfather was on the 
accident crew and worked on -many- crashes.  When a B-36 crashes it 
leaves a hell of a lot of burnt, twisted, aluminum and many bodies.  I 
saw the results of one crash on the main runway where the pilot had 
reversed the props on landing but only one wing reversed, the other 
didn't and B-36's don't land too well sideways.   Needless to say nobody 
got out of that one. Haystack mountain was famous for the number of 
crashes on it.  There was another horrible crash when one of the first 
B-47's did a low pass at a demonstration and pulled up -way- too fast.  
The wings folded up over the fuselage and it dropped like a rock, 
luckily not on the high ranking audience.  Edwards had too many crashes 
to count.  Interesting place to grow up.

On 09/19/2015 11:02 PM, mikea wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 19, 2015 at 11:09:07AM -0700, Mark via Milsurplus wrote:
>> Saw and heard a few B 36s in the 50s but they were high up. Looked through
>> cheap kids binoculars. Couldn't see much more than an outline. Unmistakable
>> sound though.
>>
>> The only ones I've seen up close are the one at Dayton OH (complete) and the
>> one at Merced CA (interior totally gutted).
>>
>> Went to a B-36 crew reunion years ago at Castle AFB. Amazing stories. Talked
>> to guys who used the ARC 21 AM CW liaison radios and scanned HF spectrum
>> with ARR-7.
>>
>> One story told by several different crew members were missions flow WELL
>> ABOVE 60,000 ft in 36Hs that had undergone the featherweight mod. They
>> would not say where the missions were flown but all agreed on altitude.
>> Lowered wing loading after the featherweight mod program apparently allowed
>> a service ceiling that far exceeded the published specs.
>>
>> I have a RB-36H Dash 1 manual. What a complicated aircraft. What really
>> amazes me is the the manual still has that distinctive 1950s airplane smell.
>> Those who flew those old planes know the aroma.
>>
>> Interestingly the lone C-99 is being totally restored for static display.
>> Transport version of B-36.
> I remember a flight of B-36 going over Tyndall AFB when I was maybe 10, which
> would have been 1956-ish. Sounded like a contrabass beehive. The closest thing
> I have now to that sound is the low "C" on my cello.
>
> That was the same trip where I heard a U-2 pilot say that he was at 102,500
> feet, and then clam up. Can anyone say "Beadwindow"?
>