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Title: Convair B-36 Peacemaker: Strategic Air Command (1955)
Source:
IMDB/Wikipedia
URL Source: [None]
Published: Jun 15, 2020
Author: Deckard, et al
Post Date: 2020-06-15 08:02:36 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 522
Comments: 1
Just watched this chestnut on Amazon Prime, a really good look at the early days of SAC. Robert "Dutch" Holland (James Stewart) is a successful third baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals batting .335 and making 70 k per year. June Allyson plays his wife, Sally. He was recalled into the newly-formed Strategic Air Command stationed at Carswell Air Force Base. Holland flies missions in the massive B-36 "Peacemaker" bomber. Wasn't familiar with this aircraft until I watched the film. Really cool plane - 10 engines - 4 jet and 6 prop. Apparently the jets were used mostly for take-off. The B-36 had a crew of 15, the pressurized flight deck and crew compartment were linked to the rear compartment by a pressurized tunnel through the bomb bay. Movement through the tunnel was on a wheeled trolley, pulling on a rope: a 10 foot manhole-sized horizontal shaft, like an mini version of "Harry" in "The Great Escape". Looked like it was made of brass. The rear compartment featured six bunks and a dining galley, and led to the tail turret, the interior of the plane was almost like the inside of a submarine, or as Dutch called it, a "flying battleship". A predictable plot for the most part but some spectacular aerial footage of both the B-36 and the state-of-the-art (at the time!) medium jet bomber, the B-47 with a crew of three. Amazing how the technology had advanced to the point where the plane required only three crew members instead of 15. The movie is worth seeing for its loving last look at a generation of impressive aircraft that never saw combat, and hence aren't as well known as both their predecessors and successors that did serve in war. 6.4 rating at at IMDB. I give it a solid 7.
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#1. To: Deckard (#0)
Robert "Dutch" Holland (James Stewart) is a successful third baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals batting .335 and making 70 k per year. June Allyson plays his wife, Sally. Here is General Jimmy Stewart in the 43rd Bomb Wing SAC unit at Carswell Air Force Base will I was stationed there serving in the B-69 Hustler. When the General Dynamics / Air Force film “Champion of Champions” was produced in the early 1960s the United States Air Force (USAF) was flying several manned bomber types. Brigadier General James M Stewart, USAF (ret) did the narration and makes several appearances in the film. In fact, he climbs out of the pilot’s seat of a Convair B-58 Hustler appearing in the film’s opening scene. We’re told that Stewart joined the Mach 2 club when he flew a Hustler. Of course Stewart was still in The Air Force Reserve when the film was made and there is plenty of documentation of his flights aboard Convair B-36 Peacemakers, Boeing B-47 Stratojets, and Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers. He may actually have flown the B-58 before he retired from the Air Force in 1968. Either way the film is entertaining in a what-if sort of way. B-58s entered service in 1960 and served for a tumultuous ten years before they were retired. The film makes mention of the B-58’s low-level flight performance, which is ironic because the B-58 was originally designed for high altitude penetration missions. Of course when in 1960 the capabilities of Soviet surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) became apparent, Strategic Air Command (SAC) was forced to change their mission parameters to low-level penetration sorties. The B-58 could not use its greatest asset (its speed) as effectively at low altitude. The change to low-level work spelled the end of the B-58 in SAC front-line service. Poster’s Comment: The Major John Deutschendorf seen in the video at 7:42 was a pilot in our unit. He was also the father of John Denver who was a high school student at the time.
Just watched this chestnut on Amazon Prime, a really good look at the early days of SAC. 
OFFICIAL UNITED STATES AIR FORCE PHOTOGRAPH
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