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B-36 Peacemaker
Responding to the US Army Air Forces’ requirement for a strategic bomber with intercontinental range, Consolidated Vultee (later Convair) designed the B-36 Peacemaker during World War II. The airplane made its maiden flight in August 1946, and in June 1948 the Strategic Air Command (SAC) received its first operational B-36 at Carswell Air Force Base (AFB).
As explained by Peter E. Davies in his book B-36 ‘Peacemaker’ Units of the Cold War, Carswell soon became a popular port of call for politicians and celebrities keen to be seen with the world’s most impressive bomber and book a ‘joy ride’ in it. At a time when fear of communist aggression was a major public concern, the B-36 units provided powerful imagery of the SAC deterrent to reassure Americans.
Consolidated Vultee produced ‘Target-Peace’, a B-36 documentary in 1949 that featured flypasts by 11 B-36As, showing B-36Bs on the production line and glimpses of the B-36D and its XC-99 transport version against a strongly patriotic soundtrack. RKO Pictures used an early B-36D (49-2652 with fake ‘triangle L’ tail markings) as the ‘star’ of its production High Frontier, employing the expertise of 436th BS commander Lt Col John Bartlett. A B-36 cockpit was mocked up and air-to-air footage was shot at Carswell, but studio owner Howard Hughes lost interest in the film project and it was never completed.
Strategic Air Command Movie
Brief B-36 appearances were included in other films featuring nuclear war scenarios, and the collaborative effort by Gen LeMay, actor James Stewart and screenwriter Lt Col Beirne Lay Jr resulted in the most memorable B-36 film of them all, Strategic Air Command. Lay, a World War 2 B-24 bomb group commander whose autobiographical novel had been turned into the film Twelve O’Clock High, was close to LeMay. He wrote the screenplay for High Frontier and engaged the interest of LeMay and Oscar-winning actor James Stewart for the new film, extending the ideas of High Frontier for a wider audience in VistaVision. In November 1943 Stewart had commanded the 703rd BS, an Eighth Air Force B-24 unit, and by 1945 he was in charge of the 2nd Bomb Wing. Post-war, he retained a reserve USAAF commission.
Filming by Paramount Pictures began at Carswell on Feb. 4, 1954 with a large production crew. B-36H 51-5734 (with a couple of similarly marked substitutes), flown mainly by Lt Col George N Payne, was used for the impressive aerial sequences. The plot, featuring a B-36 that catches fire during cold-weather tests over Greenland and crash-lands on snowy terrain after the crew had bailed out, had echoes of earlier real B-36 losses. Stewart continued to fly into the 1960s, completing a B-52 mission over North Vietnam and hitting Mach 2 in a Convair B-58A Hustler. Beirne Lay received an Academy Award nomination in the Best Motion Picture Story category in 1955 for Strategic Air Command.
Boosting campaign
LeMay kept up his B-36-boosting campaign with overflights of the Air Force Association’s July 1949 National Convention in Chicago. Each day seven B-36s flew over the city in formation. In 1948–49, LeMay sent B-36 overflight demonstrations to 13 high-profile public events ranging from the Cleveland Air Races to a sonorous cruise over Washington, DC to impress Congress and officially celebrate 45 years since the Wright brothers’ first flight in a far less substantial craft. The public soon became well acquainted with their costly new protector.
Five B-36A/Bs from the 7th BW overflew the Capitol Building to mark the inauguration of President Harry S Truman on Jan. 20, 1949. He restricted the defence budget in that year, but the B-36 survived while other USAF aircraft purchases were cut.
B-36 ‘Peacemaker’ Units of the Cold War is published by Osprey Publishing and is available to order here.
Photo credit: U.S. Air Force
