Vintage shots from days gone by!

Ok, I recognize the C-47, B-17, & the B-29. But what's the six prop monster next to 'em?????

 

b-36

 

Never seen one. Thanx.

 

I know you are not old enough, but it is the most wounderful sound I have ever hear in my life. As a young person it was a great day when I heard and felt the vibration from the over flight.

 

Nice footage from Jimmy Stewart in "Strategic Air Command". Be sure to view full screen. Incredibly capacious interior, built to carry the early deliverable thermonuclear, of which one was nearly the size of the B17 fuselage and all a B-36 could carry.

Notice particularly the takeoff roll and all the other planes clearly made visible on the ramps. A similar scene with dozens of B-47's are visible from from the tower appear later in the film. This was all not so much for the benefit of the American audience as it was for the "probable enemy" who was deliberately getting exposure to the expanse of the fleet presumably available for "delivery" of the payloads.

The cutaway cockpit of the B-47 from later in the film is viewable at the museum at March AFB near Riverside, CA.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wvEzhyY9F4

 

Thanks so much for the link to that video! That is so cool. Back in the early '80's when we were living in Arlington, TX, there was a B-36 on stationary display right off Collins Rd near the 183 freeway and I drove past it twice daily. It was eventually restored and flown out and I regret that we had moved away before that. It would have been something to see that flying in person.

 

Bet there's a great story to go with this pic.....

 

YEP!---Thats when we all rode our Whizzers & Cushmans to school in 1947.

 

West side of Main St. Middleport NY

Near the canal, Middleport

 

B-36 Peacemakers were in the Air Force fleet until about 1959-60. The picture posted is an early one, later 36s were fitted with 2 each jet engines on each wing to increase the aircraft's power and especially its takeoff capability. I was in the Air Force after it was phased out but worked with a few older career guys that remembered them. They said the B-36s were very high maintenance and very LOUD. One is on display at the Air Force Museum @ Wright Patterson AFB, OH.

 

Lots of folks who follow this thread like to see the unvarnished (and un-tattooed!) beauties
of the past. Me too! Comedienne Marie Wilson is rarely mentioned, however, she was
gorgeous enough to have been one of the GIs', airmen's, sailors' and marines' favorite
pinup girls during WWII. There are lots of photos and a ton of info on her on the 'net, but
I'll just let this pic give testimony for now.

Marie was in a couple score of films, as well as starring in a long-running radio broadcast,
"My Friend Irma," as well as two film versions of "Irma" in '49 and '50 (which, incidentally,
were Martin & Lewis' first movie appearances!). No dummy in real life, Wilson helped
create the buxom "dumb blonde" stereotype, adopted by so many female entertainers
from the 1930s onward. And that's a long list.

 

...

 

These Cushman photos remind me of my days in the USAF, at what was then the Army Language School (now the Defense Language Institute) in Monterey. We used to rent those things downtown and cruise all over the peninsula. That was in the spring of 1957.

And as for the B-36, I think you could feel one coming before you heard it.

 

The C-47 (DC-3) was made by Douglas. Those all look to be Boeing planes in the photo. Not sure what designation the twin engine personnel transport is, but it's not a C-47.

The B-36 was called the Peacemaker. To see one in person is really something. I had to march underneath one everyday on my way to meteorology school at Chanute AFB when I was in the Navy.

 

Was that a partial vinyl top on that 59 or a sunroof like the 50"s Vicky's?

 

.
It was just the way the trim split the color on some 1959 Chryslers...

 

The B36 was built by Convair, so it's not an all-Boeing show.

Neither is the twin a Boeing 247 because the tail is wrong (and it's just not as graceful as a 247 generally). Doesn't look like a Martin much, either.

 

I think the twin is a B-18. It was a lash up job by taking a DC-3 wing and horizontal and adding a bomber fuselage. Only a few built. I think it was in competition with the early B-17 which was almost cancelled due to the cost. Built by Douglas.

 

It's B-18 Bolo, the Air Corps selected it as THE bomber in the late 30's!
Quite a few were made, they were used mostly for coastal recon when the shooting started. It was indeed a derivative of the DC-3/C-47

 

Here a nice B-18 at the USAF Museum

 

Here's the B-18 Bolo in the USAF Museum

 

Yaws Drive In-Portland Oregon

 

..can't wait to get back into history lesson... man, did i say that? school is long ago, times 're changing. so nice to learn something new every minute here, never saw the B-18, thanks, Andy!

 

Good call, thanks. I was aware of the B-18, but it wasn't even coming to mind.

I would have thought a Lockheed Electra derivative (Hudson/Ventura) would have been more attractive than the B-18, though commonality with C-47 bits (and that wing) probably made it a better bomber.

Oh, well, Douglas found plenty to do when the shootin' started, anyway.