B-36 buzzing Fort Worth Neighborhood
The impressive footage in this post shows a Convair B-36 Peacemaker strategic bomber performing a low pass over Fort Worth neighborhood. Neighbors in the Ridglea area south of Carswell Air Force Base (AFB) reported TV antennas snagged from roofs and structural damage to some homes.
According to the video the first clip is how a normal B-36 takeoff and climbout appeared from the Ridglea neighborhood just south of Carswell AFB.
The second clip instead shows the infamous “buzz job” that occurred one morning.
Born in response to the U.S. Army Air Forces’ (USAAF) requirement for a strategic bomber with intercontinental range, the Consolidated Vultee (later Convair) B-36 was designed during World War II, performed its maiden flight in Aug. 1946, and in Jun. 1948 the first operational B-36 was delivered to Strategic Air Command (SAC).
Actually several B-36s served as photographic reconnaissance aircraft, and others were adapted to launch and retrieve specially modified RF-84F/K reconnaissance planes.
Powered by six Pratt & Whitney R-4360 engines, the B-36J cruised at 230 mph, but for additional bursts of speed its four General Electric J47s increased the maximum speed to 435 mph (hence aircraft’s slogan “six turning, four burning”).
The Peacemaker could carry 86,000 pounds of nuclear or conventional bombs.
When production ended in Aug. 1954, more than 380 B-36s had been built for the U.S. Air Force (USAF) and in 1958-1959, the service replaced the B-36 with the all-jet B-52.
The B-36 never saw combat action and never dropped a bomb on an enemy target, but did obtain a measure of fame when flown by Jimmy Stewart—a real-life Air Force Reserve brigadier general—flew it in the movie “Strategic Air Command. ” More importantly, the mammoth aircraft remained a potent deterrent throughout its service, and more than lived up to its nickname, “Peacemaker.”
