B-36 Raids in a Fortress North America/Luft '46 Scenario

Delta Force

Banned
Would it have been possible to develop a Lycoming R-7755 powered variant of the B-36 with increased fuel and/or payload capacity, possibly with a fuselage stretch? Alternatively, what about developing an even larger aircraft?

Also, how would the B-35 and B-49 compare to the B-36 and B-60?
 
Would it have been possible to develop a Lycoming R-7755 powered variant of the B-36 with increased fuel and/or payload capacity, possibly with a fuselage stretch? Alternatively, what about developing an even larger aircraft?

Also, how would the B-35 and B-49 compare to the B-36 and B-60?

Anything is possible. However realistically the B-36 had a immense fuel load and at some point you are better off investing in aerial refueling than trying to be build a larger aircraft. The B-36 was already to large for almost any hanger. It was a huge jump in size from the B-29 and with a 86,000lb bomb load it had the heaviest bomb load of any USAF bomber. The B-36 could drop more tonnage than any B-52, which is no small feat. The B-36 could carry 72 1,000lb bombs or 3 22,000 bomb grand slam bombs.

The issue with the B-35 and B-49 is the flying wing concept. Was the flying wing ahead of it's time? A lot of smart people say yes and we had to wait until the B-2 before computers advanced enough that the concept would work. The German flying wing fighters had the same issue. Maybe with enough testing the issues could be worked out but we will never know. Also with how fast things where advancing the United States needed a intercontinental bomber that could drop nuclear ordnance on the Soviet Union as quickly as possible. The B-36 was this bomber and it was starting to enter squadron service by 1948-1949 with the B-35 flying wing issues I don't see how it could have entered service by this time period. The B-36 was fairly quickly replaced by the B-52 and the B-52 bomber is superior to B-49.
 

Delta Force

Banned
Anything is possible. However realistically the B-36 had a immense fuel load and at some point you are better off investing in aerial refueling than trying to be build a larger aircraft. The B-36 was already to large for almost any hanger. It was a huge jump in size from the B-29 and with a 86,000lb bomb load it had the heaviest bomb load of any USAF bomber. The B-36 could drop more tonnage than any B-52, which is no small feat. The B-36 could carry 72 1,000lb bombs or 3 22,000 bomb grand slam bombs.

True, but I'm thinking more in terms of being able to carry a payload that massive out to 4,000+ miles. At maximum range, the B-36 is only able to carry 11,000 pounds. That's a very respectable payload, but it would be even better to carry more. If it can deliver close to its 72,000 pound payload capacity, it will greatly increase the efficiency of the bombing mission. The largest B-29 raid over Japan used 839 aircraft with a maximum payload of 20,000 pounds, so if the B-36 is able to deliver its maximum payload only around 233 aircraft would be required (there would probably have to be 233 tanker aircraft though).

The issue with the B-35 and B-49 is the flying wing concept. Was the flying wing ahead of it's time? A lot of smart people say yes and we had to wait until the B-2 before computers advanced enough that the concept would work. The German flying wing fighters had the same issue. Maybe with enough testing the issues could be worked out but we will never know. Also with how fast things where advancing the United States needed a intercontinental bomber that could drop nuclear ordnance on the Soviet Union as quickly as possible. The B-36 was this bomber and it was starting to enter squadron service by 1948-1949 with the B-35 flying wing issues I don't see how it could have entered service by this time period. The B-36 was fairly quickly replaced by the B-52 and the B-52 bomber is superior to B-49.

The B-35 could have been equipped with vertical stabilizers similar to those on the B-49.
 
True, but I'm thinking more in terms of being able to carry a payload that massive out to 4,000+ miles. At maximum range, the B-36 is only able to carry 11,000 pounds. That's a very respectable payload, but it would be even better to carry more. If it can deliver close to its 72,000 pound payload capacity, it will greatly increase the efficiency of the bombing mission. The largest B-29 raid over Japan used 839 aircraft with a maximum payload of 20,000 pounds, so if the B-36 is able to deliver its maximum payload only around 233 aircraft would be required (there would probably have to be 233 tanker aircraft though).

The B-35 could have been equipped with vertical stabilizers similar to those on the B-49.

I understand increasing the ability to deliver a large conventional load over distance. The best bet is tanker aircraft instead of building a larger aircraft. The B-36 was already a really large bomber. I have to wonder in a conflict with nuclear weapons against Nazi Germany if using it for conventional bombing would be the best use of the B-36?

I just found a interesting tidbit on the B-35 and B-49. The flying wing had 8 small bomb-bay's outside of the crew compartment area in the wing. The bomb-bay's couldn't be enlarged because of how they where situated in the wing and where to small to carrier the nuclear weapons of the 40's and the 50's. This meant the B-35 and B-49 where useless as a nuclear weapon delivery platform. Even if the stability issues could be resolved. The B-36 had been designed with massive bomb-bays for conventional bombs but the USAF found that nuclear weapons fit just fine. If we are assuming a focus at some point to get the B-36 in-service by 1946 we have to assume a focus by the end of 1940 on the B-36 as the main strategic bomber. This means other projects like the B-35 and eventually the B-49 never see the light of day. Even bomber production for the B-24, B-17, B-29 are all cut back.
 

Delta Force

Banned
How difficult would it be to navigate across the Atlantic Ocean (and perhaps the Pacific Ocean too) if the United States was unable to operate out of the United Kingdom?
 
How difficult would it be to navigate across the Atlantic Ocean (and perhaps the Pacific Ocean too) if the United States was unable to operate out of the United Kingdom?

Properly trained I don't see it as a issue. Loran stations started coming online historically by the end of 1942 historically to help navigation across the Atlantic.
 
The other thing to remember is that if you fly high enough (modern commercial airliner cruise height or above, which the B-36 did) most of the problems with celestial navigation go away. Not accurate enough to blind-bomb by, but certainly enough to get you close to the target. Most WW2 bombers couldn't use this because they flew too low so were badly affected by the weather.
 
Could LORAN receivers be carried by strategic bombers during the 1940s, perhaps on a squadron leader aircraft?

Yes. The Wikipedia article on LORAN indicates that LORAN was installed on over 75000 platforms by the end of WW2 IOTL, and was especially useful for aircraft over the Pacific.
 
How difficult would it be to navigate across the Atlantic Ocean (and perhaps the Pacific Ocean too) if the United States was unable to operate out of the United Kingdom?

Because of the current discussions on the B-36 I was doing some additional reading on the B-36 (http://www.amazon.com/Convair-B-36-...1?ie=UTF8&qid=1434121397&sr=8-1&keywords=B-36 ) and I focused my reading on the Oral history from the personnel that flew the B-36. Some parts on navigation across the Atlantic caught my eye.

The B-36 crews for maximum range when they took would fly the B-36 close to the water and as the bomber burned off fuel they would let bomber gain altitude as the load decreased. The interesting part was that because of this low altitude this made it difficult for the navigator because they would be below the cloud cover and they couldn't take a star sighting. However the internal Navigation systems( and the SAC Navigators) were good enough on the B-36 that they could fly for 10+ hours across the Atlantic with no star sightings and just using dead reckoning and still stay on the correct flight path. That really surprised me.
 
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