Roden 347 Convair B-36B Peacemaker (Early) 1:144

The first flight of the new machine, which had already received the semi-official name Peacemaker, took place on August 8, 1946 - a year after the first use of nuclear weapons. It was a real giant, whose size still amazes the imagination: it had a wingspan of 70 meters and a fuselage length of 50 meters. The height of the aircraft exceeded 14 meters, and its maintenance would necessitate the building of special structures; ground crews would have to work on machines inside a five-storey building.

In terms of design, the B-36 was a real engineering breakthrough, as for the first time the latest lightweight magnesium alloys were used in large quantities, as well as glued components, and for the construction of individual units Convair had to use the largest equipment in aircraft history. Another special feature of the aircraft was the six pusher engines: that is, the propeller screws were located not in front of the wing as usual, but behind it to improve flight performance when using a thick laminar profile wing.

The fuselage had a circular cross-section with a diameter of 3.8 m, and inside it was even a special tunnel to allow crew members to move between the nose and the rear. The bomb bay was divided into four separate parts, which made it possible to deploy a variety of weapons. The aircraft was fitted with the latest high-power turbocharged engines, which developed a thrust of 3,000 horsepower each. As no escort fighter existed able to accompany a bomber with such a huge range, maximum attention was paid to protective weapons, which were to consist of 20 mm caliber remote-controlled guns.

Given the long flight time, the giant’s crew had to number as many as 15 people, six of whom were backups and were in the special rest room during flight. All this demonstrated that, although in construction terms it generally followed its predecessors, the B-36 was of a completely new generation of aircraft with much greater capabilities than ever before.

Testing of the prototype and pre-production airframes lasted until early 1948, and in the summer of the same year the first production B-36A was transferred to Eglin Air Force Base. A total of 22 of the B-36A version were built and they were intended primarily for converting crews onto the new type. Already during tests it was clear that the aircraft fully justified the estimated values, achieving a range of 10,000 km.