Warbird Information Exchange

Greetings
Was wondering if anybody has pictures of the B-36 Dropping Bomb's ?
I have never seen any .

Always Keep em Flying !

Glen


Lookie Capt Jim ! Wham ! Wham ! ...........................Termights .

I never have eithor.!!! It would be cool to see a pic of it though.

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Didn't the "Great Planes" series on Discovery Channel many years ago show a B-36 dropping conventional ordnance? The bombs were probably 500 pounders, and they never seemed to stop coming out of those bomb bays! Also, although I've seen no photos, a B-36F was used in the hydrogen bomb testing program in the Pacific and got a little too close to the blast from one of the weapons. The aircraft was so severely damaged that it was patched up and sent back to Convair/Fort Worth for evaluation and later scrapped.

Scott

I’m guessing that the Air Force never cared much about dropping iron bombs with the B-36. Photos of nukes were probably classified so film of B-36s dropping them would be rare.

Dan

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Nearly all B-36's rarely ever carried conventional bomb loads. Most only carried nuclear weapons to my knowlege. I'm sure photographs of them dropping nukes back in the day were very rare and the ones that did exist were most likely kept classified. The recon versions of the B-36 carried a giant camera in its bomb bay and a couple extra fuel tanks for extended range.

Jim

Dennis Jenkins' Magnesium Overcast has this to say on pp143-4.

The B-36 was capable of carrying 67 different types of conventional, incendiary, cluster and chemical bombs, as well as several different types of mines. On aircraft equipped to carry nuclear weapons, any airborne nuclear or thermonuclear weapon in the inventory could be carried - the B-36 was the only aircraft that could do so. Only a single type of bomb could be carried in each bomb bay, although each bay could carry different types if necessary. The end bomb bays (Nos. 1 and 4) could carry a maximum of thirty-eight 500-pound bombs, nineteen 1000-pound bombs, eight 2000-pound bombs or three 4000-pound bombs. The two middle bomb bays (Nos. 2 and 3) were not as tall as the other two due to the wing carry-through structure, and could carry twenty-eight 500-pound bombs, sixteen 1000-pound bombs, six 2000-pound bombs or three 4000-pound bombs.

P44 of the same book shows conventional dummies having been dropped from the belly of 41-92013. Thirty-one 500-pounders were dropped. The pic, however, doesn't have both the aircraft and the falling bombs in the same frame.

Walrus

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Know it doesn't help here, but recall seeing a USAF firepower film in the early 60's of a B-36 dropping a loooonnggg string of iron boms at Eglin AFB.

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Bob

Is "toddeling" anything like "toggling?"

the last b36 left in 1959 if i recall corectly.. so would of been a 50s firepower demo at Eglin?

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i have pics of walt soplata's b-36's bomb shackles.......... a massive piece of hardware!!!

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

Of course he said that he saw the film in the early 60s, of the firepower demo.....

Yes, unfortunately the last flight of the B-36 was in 1959 I believe. Officially retired in Texas in February 1959, and it seems that I remember reading that the last flight was later that year (July??) when one was ferried to Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio for display at the Air Force Museum.



That firepower demo film would be interesting to see.

There's a pic of three of the firepower demo acft at Eglin at this site. No year is given, but, by the looks of the'52, it's in the late 50's.

http://www.air-and-space.com/b-36%20variants.htm

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Bob

Thanks for that link - those are some great pictures! My guess would be somewhere in the 1955-57 timeframe for that shot, since I believe that the B-52B model was the first "operational" Stratofotress that went into initial service in 1955, and after 1957 the B-36 was winding down fast in operational service.