I, of course, live in Texas.  But I travel a lot.  I have visited many
aircraft museums all over the country, but not the one at Castle AFB.  The
B-36 on display there is the sole RB-36H in existence.  It was the
reconnaissance version of the B-36.  That museum is on my list of places to
visit.

I offer this page, which shows the various SAC bombers over the year, all in
scale.  The only one missing is the B-45 Tornado.
http://www.strategic-air-command.com/aircraft/bomberhome/bomber-home.htm

I have visited the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson in Ohio.  That is an
amazing museum.  They do have a B-36J on display.
http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/air_power/ap39.htm
.

The B-36 is billed as the largest combat aircraft ever built.

Denys

-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Brandt [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Saturday, February 15, 2003 11:42 AM
To: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: so much good discussion going on

Denys - I stand corrected. BTW if you live in California an excellent
aircraft museum is at the old Castle AFB in Merced. They have a B-36 there -
the only one I have seen - and that thing is H U G E. While I don't have the
dimensions readily available it seems as big as a B-52.

Bill

__________________________________________________________________________
Denys wrote:
It was the Convair B-36 Peacemaker and not the Boeing B-29 Superfortress
that was originally designed to reach an attack Europe from North America.
The B-29 had a range of about 4,200 miles, which would have been good for a
one-way mission from North America to Europe.  The B-36 had a range of just
under 10,000 miles and that would have enabled it to go anywhere over
Europe.

The B-36's design started in the very early 1940's when it became 'apparent'
that Europe would be under Nazi rule.  The first prototype flew in August of
1946.  All 446 examples were built in Ft-Worth, Texas.

Denys

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