The Peacemaker
Responding to the US Army Air Forces‘ requirement for a strategic bomber with intercontinental range, Consolidated Vultee (later Convair) designed the B-36 during World War II. The airplane made its maiden flight in August 1946, and in June 1948 the Strategic Air Command received its first operational B-36.
The Peacemaker took part in many important nuclear test programmes and also provided the US nuclear deterrent until the faster B-52 became available in 1955.
As toldby Peter E. Davies in his book B-36 ‘Peacemaker’ Units of the Cold War, the B-36 never faced the fury of Soviet air defences, but Mother Nature managed to put more than half of the B-36 force out of action in just ten minutes, forcing Gen LeMay to temporarily remove the Carswell Air Force Base wing’s controlling 19th Air Division (AD) from the SAC war plan.
On Sep. 1, 1952, dark storm clouds began moving rapidly towards Fort Worth at 1800 hrs, with winds reaching 91 mph and gusting to 125 mph. Fortunately, most personnel were off-base for the Labor Day holiday. B-36s parked at Carswell and at the Convair facility were blown into, or onto, each other. Fuel gushed out over the dispersal areas and power at the base had to be cut off to avoid electrical lines from igniting disastrous fires. Ten minutes later the winds subsided. The carnage now became evident, although there were no serious injuries to personnel.
The Tornado that Damaged 106 B-36 Bombers
No fewer than 72 B-36s were reported as destroyed at Carswell, and another 24 at Fort Worth. In all, 106 had to be taken out of service. Many had their tails torn off, and considerable damage to aircraft and buildings was caused by the B-36 maintenance docks being picked up by the tempest and smashed into them. Incredibly, there were no fires, despite most of the aircraft having been fuelled up for the following day’s planned mass deployment to North Africa.
This ruinous damage to America’s strategic defence simply had to be repaired expeditiously, and a massive effort supervised by Brig Gen Clarence ‘Bill’ Irvine, by then commander of the 19th AD, began immediately. Because the concentration of bombers was so close to the Convair plant, inspection and assessment of the damage by a company team headed by Tom Neely and Air Materiel Command’s San Antonio Air Materiel Area could be organised quickly. Neely identified ten aircraft that had slight to moderate damage, and they were tackled immediately. Within a week the first aircraft, B-36H 50-1096, had the wide gashes in its fuselage and other damage repaired at a cost of more than half-a-million dollars and it was returned to its squadron. The remaining nine bombers were repaired within two weeks.
Damage to tails and rear fuselages
Seriously damaged Carswell examples could be moved to the Convair factory for repair or remanufacture, and 19 were effectively rebuilt there. In Project Fixit, 26 aircraft were assigned to Convair for extensive remanufacture and repair. The original Fixit cost estimate exceeded $48m. Repairs proceeded rapidly, and production of the necessary components such as vertical tail assembly fixtures was considerably increased.
Damage to tails and rear fuselages was the most common problem. It was soon apparent that the losses were not as severe as it first seemed. In the end, only one aircraft, B-36D 44-92051, was a total loss, having been blown all the way into an adjacent field, with its tail and left wing ripped off and its fuselage fractured. The hulk went to New Mexico for the Sandia Laboratory’s secret nuclear radiation tests.
Within ten days of the disaster, the 7th BW had enough aircraft to resume operations, and by the end of September its complement of operational B-36s actually exceeded the total before the tornado. The last repair job was completed by 11 May 1953. One B-36H (51-5712) was considered beyond repair for operational use, as its cockpit and nose area were smashed. It was duly converted into the NB-36H nuclear testbed aircraft in 1954 with a revised nose section. The aircraft subsequently undertook extensive trials with an airborne nuclear reactor as a power source.
Dispersal to other airfields
To prevent similar losses in future, Carswell introduced a policy of overnight dispersal to other airfields, including Davis-Monthan AFB, in Arizona, and Biggs AFB whenever Texas storms appeared to be threatening its ‘Peacemakers’.
A powerful tornado hit Puerto Rico in 1956, and the 72nd BW was able to evacuate most of its RB-36s in time. Unflyable examples were turned into the wind with their engines running as the eye of the storm passed over Ramey AFB and no aircraft were lost. However, 6th BW B-36J 52-2818 was apparently caught in a tornado forming at 25,000 ft over West Texas on 25 May 1955 while airborne. The left wing was broken off and the aircraft crashed near Sterling City with the loss of Capt L C Basinger and his 15-man crew.
