Convair B-36 Peacemaker 1949-59: America's Cold War 'big stick' ten-engine nuclear bomber that could rain destruction on aggressors anywhere on Earth

With six powerful 2,500hp Pratt & Whitney radial engines, the B-36 was the largest aircraft ever to enter volume production, joining the US Air Force in 1948 as the world’s first operational bomber with hemispheric range. Two years later the type got an additional four engines, turbojets paired in pods attached to pylons outboard of the six propeller engines.At 230 ft (70.1m) it boasted the longest wingspan of any combat aircraft ever built. Thus did the ten-engine behemoth, capable of carr...