Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Great aviation history clip

B-36 takeoff from the movie "Strategic Air Command" over 50 years ago, when REAL men flew REAL airplanes!! Authentic B-36 action, watch for General Jimmy Stewart in the jumpseat. Worth it just for sounds of the great R-4360's. Might not be dialup friendly.

http://www.alexisparkinn.com/photogallery/Videos/2008-4-18-B-36-SAC-Video.wmv

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Six turning and four burning. Classic stuff. Thanks. Bear

Awesome!!!

Very cool stuff. Jimmy Stewart = Great American.

The timing is about right as Air Force General Jimmy Stewart would have been a LT Col about the time that piece was shot.

That's an awsome video I can remember those planes flying out of Fairchield AFB in Spokane, WA and out of the AFB at Moses Lake, WA in the late Forties to middle Fifties. They were really large planes and whn you saw one fly over you wondered how they ever got off the ground.

How big or small are those compared to a B52?

A B-36's wingspan was about 50' bigger than a B-52. Max weapons load was 72,000 lbs compared to a 70,000 lbs so by any measure it was a very large airplane.

My Dad recalls them flying over Tampa when he was a kid and said that you could hear them from miles away.

They flew lower than B52s and there were more of 'em. My family still has movies of 20 or 30 of them making a low level flyby at the Dayton air show in 1952.

They literally shook the air as they passed over if the were below about 10,000 ft. You could feel them as well as hear them. Twas the stuff of dreams when I was a kid!

When I was in high school in 50 one used to come over my home in Mississippi twice a week. You could set your watch by him,I mean to the minute. He was mostly red,never knew what he did but he was always going from east to west. You had no problem knowing when he was there,those 6 big propellors make a totally unique sound. I worked in the early 60's with a guy who had been a crew chief on one and he really loved them as he said most people who ever served in one did.

Got to see and hear them flying into Moffitt in the early Fifties. You never forget the sound. Go to the Air force Museum in Dayton to see one inside!

By the way My Dad was stationed at Moffitt with Jimmy Stewert, One of my treasured pictures is of them together in uniform at the Base!

Here's more info from Air Force Museum: http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=360

Nice. Thanks for posting that. I only remember seeing one in flight. But, it was so impressive that I still remember!

One good thing Hollywood has done is provide some fine movie footage of ships and aircraft from the past.

As a young airman I watched what was purported to be the last 'operational' B-36 land at Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, AZ in either late 1958 or early 1959 to be towed to the 'bone yard'. We were experiencing fairly strong crosswinds that day & watching that 'monster' 'crab' in with the nose pointed several degrees off center of the runway centerline was impressive.