December 18, 1998
Here's another one of my late father's flying stories.
After Dad was recalled to SAC during the Korean War, he flew the B-29 and B-50 for awhile, but was eventually assigned to a wing flying the B-36 "Peacemaker." One of the aircraft he flew is the very one on display at the Air Force Museum in Dayton. This monster aircraft with a crew of 16 had an interesting history, having originally been conceived during WWII as the ultimate bomber. However, because of delays and technical problems, the first flight was not until August 1946, well after the end of the war. By the time Dad arrived, the B-36 had been equipped with an additional four turbojet engines on pods on the wingtips to supplement the six 3,800 hp P&W 28-cylinder "corncob" radials mounted in pusher configuration on the backs of the wings. This gave the plane a maximum gross weight of 410,000 lbs and a top speed of 411 mph. With a wing span of 230 ft, the B-36 still holds the record for the largest (in terms of wingspan) operational US military aircraft (the C-5A has a 223 ft wingspan - only the Spruce Goose was larger at 320 feet). With a standard fuel load of 36,396 gallons usable (more than three fuel tank trucks!), it could stay aloft for more than 24 hours without refueling.
The airplane was an operational nightmare. At the time it was the most complicated aircraft ever built, with over 30 miles of wiring, and something like 20 feet of electronics bays for the avionics (all vacuum tube). Dad said they never flew a mission when everything worked – something was always down. On the other hand, Dad said it was an airplane that inspired great confidence. It was rock steady in the air and, as he described it, "you had fistfuls of throttles." On the console was a seemingly endless bank of six throttles. Above on the overhead were another four throttles for the turbojets, which were specially modified to run on avgas. The throttles were duplicated on the flight engineer's console, along with an additional six prop controls. The flight engineer actually did all the throttle manipulations for most procedures, since it took two full hands to advance all the levers at once. The standard acknowledgement from the flight engineer that you had full takeoff power was "six turning and four burning." Standard operating procedure for the B-36 was that you could only abandon a mission if you lost more than three engines.
SAC used a base in Alaska for refueling after routine patrols off Soviet Russia. This base was universally hated because of the horrible weather and intense cold. Dad described one mission they flew where, by the time they got over Hawaii on their way to their station, they had already lost their three engines. They looked wistfully down at the waves breaking over the beaches below and discussed whether or not they might be able to "accidentally" have just one more engine failure so that they could spend the weekend there, rather than going on to Alaska. Unfortunately, another engine did not fail, and they completed their mission. Whether or not this was due to Dad's over-developed (as far as his boys were concerned during our adolescence) sense of responsibility, I don't know, but I suspect it was. Dad always knew exactly what the right thing to do was, and always let us kids know too, in no uncertain terms. I'm sure that's why he was such a good military officer and leader, although for this particular episode he was probably not too popular with the other 15 guys in his crew. Has there ever been a mutiny on a bomber?
On the subject of mutinies, Dad knew an officer named William Bly who, perhaps for obvious reasons, rose quickly to the rank of Captain but was never promoted beyond that. Sort of like Major Major Major in Catch 22.
Bob
Copyright Ó 1998 Robert T. Chilcoat