12/16/2023 0 Comments Rb cockpitThe second bomb bay contained photoflash bombs. The bomber’s forward bomb bay was replaced by a pressurized manned compartment carrying the cameras and a small darkroom. The RB carried a crew of 22 rather than 15, the additional crew members flying along to operate and maintain the photographic reconnaissance equipment that was carried. The RB-36D was developed as a specialized photographic-reconnaissance version of the B-36D. Only more than ten years after the B-36’s retirement were American aircraft capable of carrying larger payloads than the B-36 when the Boeing 747 and Lockheed C-5 Galaxy went into production The B-36’s four bomb bays could carry up to 86,000 pounds of bombs, more than 10 times the load carried by the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, and substantially more than the entire B-17’s gross weight. The B-36’s maximum payload was more than four times that of the World War II-developed B-29, and actually exceeded the payload of the B-52. The B-36 was the only aircraft designed to carry the T-12 “Cloudmaker,” a gravity bomb weighing 43,600 pounds and designed to produce an earthquake bomb effect. Carrying this massive weapon required merging two adjacent bomb bays. The Mark-17 was 25 feet long, 5 feet in diameter, and weighed a whopping 42,000 pounds, making it the heaviest and bulkiest American aerial thermonuclear device ever. Until the B-52 became operational, the B-36 was the only means of delivering the first generation Mark-17 hydrogen bomb.
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