The first thing you should know about the B-36 is that it was big. When I write about airplanes from World War 2, I often use words like 'colossal' and 'huge', but this is little misleading, since I usually mean "colossal - by the standards of the day." Really, even the largest aircraft of the period would be reckoned as medium-sized by today's standards; not so the B-36. It had a wingspan of 70m (230 ft), which is a bit bigger than the Boeing 747-8's, and was nearly the width of an American football field. It was 50 m (162 ft) long, about 15 stories high if it was tilted on its nose. It had a combat weight of 262,000 lbs (119,000 kg) and a max takeoff weight of 410,000 lbs (186,000 kg), which is all the more remarkable as it used piston engines, not turbines, to achieve flight. (It is in fact the largest piston powered/second largest prop-powered aircraft ever made, only beaten in the latter category by the Antonov An-22 turboprop.) Speak...
The conquest of the air will prove, ultimately, will prove to be man's greatest and most glorious triumph. What railways have done for nations, airways will do for the world. - Claude Grahame-White, The Aeroplane, 1914 Longtime readers of this thread will be unsurprised to learn that I've spent literally some time thinking about the trends that lead to airships falling out of use. Some of these you are no doubt familiar with (viz. the incredible advances in aviation made during World War 2, the enormous civil engineering project of building modern airports around the world thanks to World War 2, hydrogen being dangerously flammable when mixed with air, etc.) I came across a new idea while researching this new infodump, from a British aviation writer in 1929: "Airships breed like elephants, airplanes breed like mice." This is true. Rigid airships need to be very large to justify themselves over other Lighter Than Air (LTA) designs, which meant that getting into ...
I bought Revell's model kit of the Junkers Ju 290 about a year ago. As I tend to do, I've been casually researching it ever since, and these internet readings lead me to a weird discovery: that this rather obscure warbird is a nexus for rumor and conspiracy theory. Most of it is baseless - though I suppose understandable, given the company the Ju 290 often hung out in - but there is one issue in between the crazy I found fascinating, and want to lay out for everyone. So if it sparkles for everyone here I'm going to do a three post series on the Ju 290 family. First we will cover the real history. The second will cover the interesting issue. And the third will be a bunch of bullshit backed up by nothing. It's gonna be a bit like the Discovery channel: first, a Wings documentary. Then, a documentary on something speculative but grounded in fact. Then, a special on the "real Atlantis" or possibly ghost hunting. I: The Biggest Loser The Story of the J...
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