B-36 Peacemaker Believe It or Not Facts From 1957

In October 1957, Convair released a list of  believe-it-or-not facts about the B-36 Peacemaker bomber. 

The volume of the B-36 Peacemaker bomb bays is 12,300 cubic feet, approximately the capacity of three railroad freight cars.

An automobile could easily circle the globe 16 times with the 30,000-plus gallons of high-test gasoline in the wing tanks of a B-36.

At high speeds, the B-36’s ten engines deliver the equivalent of more than 44,000 horsepower, roughly comparable to that of nine locomotives, or about as much horsepower as that generated by 400 average passenger cars. 

The B-36 Peacemaker can carry a heavier load of bombs for a greater distance than any other airplane in existence. It has flown more than 10,000 miles while carrying 10,000 pounds of bombs halfway. 

The volume of the B-36 Peacemaker bomber, nearly 18,000 cubic feet, approximates the volume of three average five-room houses.

More than 27 miles of electrical wiring are required in the Convair B-36 electrical system, equal to the amount needed to wire 280 five-room houses. 

A 600-room hotel, or 120 five-room houses, could be heated by the anti-icing equipment installed on the B-36 superbomber. In an hour, the giant plane’s anti-icing equipment turns out 4,920,000 British thermal units. 

There are 68,000 different shop-made parts and 11,000 different assemblies per B-36 bomber, not counting the thousands upon thousands of parts in government-furnished equipment. 

To construct one 10,000-foot runway, plus a taxiway and small apron, to support B-36 Peacemaker operations, takes 45 four-ton trucks, moving 10 loads per day for 362 days, just to move the required concrete. If the runway was outside the continental U.S., it would take 20 victory ships or 12,000 C-54 cargo aircraft to haul the cement (not the sand or gravel).

The wingspan of the B-36 Peacemaker , 230 feet, is longer than the first flight made by the Wright Brothers’ Kitty Hawk Flyer in 1903.