Bio B-36

This idea has been on my mind for a while and i wanted to see what you guys thought of it.

How feasible would it be to make the b-36 bomber force into a biological/ chemical platform instead of retiring it?

How would it be used against the soviet union?
 
The B-36 was absolutely worn out by the time it was retired. The airframes were in no condition for any kind of continued service. Moreover by the time it was retired its early invulnerability to fighters was gone and it was pretty much a sitting duck.
 
I was thinking that it would be seen as a more legitimate way of abc atack on the ussr. and i was thinking it would be a low buget way for america to trike at the ussr harder
 
It's not the same thing, but supposedly there were plans to convert obsolescent B-47's into outsize cruise missiles. As a high-flying, subsonic jet, the B-47 would have been some what less vulnerable than the B-36. SAM's would be the foremost challenge, and flying very low the obvious counter. But in the early/mid 1960's, sufficiently compact and reliable terrain-following radar, presumably reliant on integrated circuitry was unavailable.
 
It's not the same thing, but supposedly there were plans to convert obsolescent B-47's into outsize cruise missiles. As a high-flying, subsonic jet, the B-47 would have been some what less vulnerable than the B-36. SAM's would be the foremost challenge, and flying very low the obvious counter. But in the early/mid 1960's, sufficiently compact and reliable terrain-following radar, presumably reliant on integrated circuitry was unavailable.


Link please?
 
I was thinking that it would be seen as a more legitimate way of abc atack on the ussr. and i was thinking it would be a low buget way for america to trike at the ussr harder

Cheaper to build more B-52s. Sustaining the B-36 would have meant keeping the factories open to build spare parts, training crews, hiring instructors with different skills...Better and cheaper to just build more B-52s.
 
It's not the same thing, but supposedly there were plans to convert obsolescent B-47's into outsize cruise missiles. As a high-flying, subsonic jet, the B-47 would have been some what less vulnerable than the B-36. SAM's would be the foremost challenge, and flying very low the obvious counter. But in the early/mid 1960's, sufficiently compact and reliable terrain-following radar, presumably reliant on integrated circuitry was unavailable.
What about a "Mistel" B-47/B-36? Launched at long range in the direction of the target and with an Anemometer like the one on the V1 bomb to make it drop down once the target has been reached.
 
What about a "Mistel" B-47/B-36? Launched at long range in the direction of the target and with an Anemometer like the one on the V1 bomb to make it drop down once the target has been reached.

This idea sounds like it would be pretty inaccurate and wouldn't be able to do anything to defend itself once launched, making it a fairly easy target for fighters and missiles. You'd still have to keep the aircraft maintained and operational until you expended them in this way as well. You might do better to use a few like that but filled with ECM gear and jammers, that way at least even if they went of course they might do some good for the bomber force following them.
 
B-36 was a WW2 project, R&D begann early 1941
after 1945 it was the only truly US intercontinental bomber

already in 1950 the USAF consider B-36 as obsolete against MIG-15
and 1955 they replace by the B-52
The scrapping of B-36s start in 1956 and end 1959
 

CalBear

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The B-36 was actually pretty much a major waste of resources as things turned out. It was meant to be able to strike at Germany of the UK fell. Once the UK held out, well, that was that.

It pushed 1941 era tech to the absolute breaking point (and beyond, as was demonstrated by the number of aircraft that sort of had their wings burn off) and by the mid-50s it was utterly obsolete. The aircraft were also dangerously worn out. The USAF only received a total of 385 airframes, which was too few for the needed mission profile, so planes that should have flown once a week (if that) flew several times a week. The aircraft flew regular missions at altitudes beyond anything ever before done on a "normal" basis and they paid for it.

By the late 50's there were less than 50 of the big bombers left that could fly. There may be a worse sort of aircraft to load down with bio-weapons (although the entire concept of bio-weapons is so insane that implying that there is a good aircraft is something of a stretch) than one that is slow, huge and has metal fatigue problems, but one really doesn't come to mind.

Now, in a world like today, where the U.S. has more or less owned the sky wherever it fought for a few decades, a huge bomb truck can live on (aka the B-52). Not so much in the 1960s.

BTW:If you really want to get a bio-weapon platform the ideal one is the U-2. Bugs & spores are light. The U2 could go lots of places the B-36 couldn't. The SR-71 (and the D-21 drone) would be another method.
 
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