Convair B-36 Peacemaker

[beasly]

Got this from Iowahawk is celebrating his 2012 Iowahawk Earth Week Cruise-In where he has a link to his 2011 invite. Scroll down a bit and you read this about the Convair B-36 Peacemaker's engine

"As a recently retired USAF pilot, I weep for my generation when I see how far we have fallen from the standards set only a generation ago. Look at this masterpiece of carbon-producing American muscle from the Convair B-36. This radial (love the sound) engine has four rows of cylinders with seven cylinders per row with a total of 56 spark plugs. And get this, the B-36 had...(give me moment to collect myself)...six of these engines per aircraft. That comes to a total of...let's see, six engines times four rows of cylinders times seven cylinders, and then if you consider the spark plugs...well, a whole bunch of cylinders and spark plugs."

Then, if you scroll up a bit, you can see a chipmunk crawling into a whole in the dash of a moving F-150.

 

[Roger Roger]

Wife's grandpa has some PIC time in that beast.

 

[Maurus]

They seriously tried this on the B-36 haha.

 

[spoolinup22]

They have one of these engines at my school, it's a cut-away view so you can see the nitty gritty on the inside. Smithsonian offered us a cool 1,000,000 for it, but they figured its best for it to just sit in a classroom, collect dust, and let our imaginations wonder how epic it would have been to fly one of these badboys.

 

[beasly]

They seriously tried this on the B-36 haha.

That makes sense. (speaking soft field takeoff here)

You have all that HP blowing air that could be used turning tank tread. When the ground speed shows that the props can beat the mud, switch to the props and monitor airspeed.

 

[trafficinsight]

That makes sense. (speaking soft field takeoff here)

You have all that HP blowing air that could be used turning tank tread. When the ground speed shows that the props can beat the mud, switch to the props and monitor airspeed.

They're not driven.

Word says they screeched like crazy on landing... godawful noise...

 

[Mark815]

I actually know a guy who flew the Peacemaker, and he always talks about his time in the B-36 (and other aircraft too) like it was nothing. He's in his 80s now, but still flew up until this past year I believe (and he's sharp still!). Coolest part is he's always logged every hour he's flown, so I had the honor of signing my name in his logbook when I "checked him out" in our 172 when I was an instructor a couple years ago.