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The B-36 Peacemaker Museum is a non-profit organization "Dedicated to the preservation of the rich aviation history of North Texas".
The museum was originally created to preserve and display the last Convair B-36 built. Of 386 B-36s built from 1945 to 1954, only four intact examples survive. B-36-J-III 52-2827 City of Fort Worth was built in Fort Worth, Texas in 1954. The aircraft was accepted by the Air Force on August 14, 1954 and was retired on 12, February 1959. It was displayed at Amon Carter Field, later Greater Southwest International Airport, from 1959 until the late 1970s, when it was moved to Carswell Air Force Base. Exposed to the extremes of Texas weather, the giant aircraft slowly deteriorated. In the early 1990s the aircraft was disassembled and moved indoors to hangar space at the factory where it was built, donated by Lockheed Aircraft. A group of dedicated volunteers, many of them retired Convair employees who had worked on the original B-36 assembly line, spent 40,000 person-hours restoring the plane.
The aircraft is officially owned by the National Museum of the United States Air Force (NMUSAF), but was on loan to the B-36 Peacemaker Museum. In 2006, it was agreed that the Peacemaker Museum did not have the proper resources to restore and exhibit the aircraft, and the aircraft was trucked to the Pima Air & Space Museum (PASM) in Tucson, Arizona where it was restored and is currently exhibited. In the arid Tucson climate, it is possible to display aircraft outdoors without the kind of deterioration that occurred in Fort Worth. As the National Museum of the United States Air Force still retains ownership of the aircraft, the future direction of the B-36 Peacemaker Museum is still undecided.
Convair, previously Consolidated Vultee, was an American aircraft-manufacturing company that later expanded into rockets and spacecraft. The company was formed in 1943 by the merger of Consolidated Aircraft and Vultee Aircraft. In 1953, it was purchased by General Dynamics, and operated as their Convair Division for most of its corporate history.
The Douglas B-18 Bolo is an American heavy bomber which served with the United States Army Air Corps and the Royal Canadian Air Force during the late 1930s and early 1940s. The Bolo was developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company from their DC-2, to replace the Martin B-10.
The Convair F-102 Delta Dagger was an interceptor aircraft designed and produced by the American aircraft manufacturer Convair. A member of the Century Series, the F-102 was the first operational supersonic interceptor and delta-wing fighter operated by the United States Air Force (USAF).
The Lockheed Constellation ("Connie") is a propeller-driven, four-engined airliner built by Lockheed Corporation starting in 1943. The Constellation series was the first pressurized-cabin civil airliner series to go into widespread use. Its pressurized cabin enabled commercial passengers to fly well above most bad weather for the first time, thus significantly improving the general safety and ease of air travel.
The Convair B-36 "Peacemaker" is a strategic bomber that was built by Convair and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) from 1949 to 1959. The B-36 is the largest mass-produced piston-engined aircraft ever built. It had the longest wingspan of any combat aircraft ever built, at 230 ft (70 m). The B-36 was the first bomber capable of delivering any of the nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal from an internal bomb bay without aircraft modifications. With a range of 10,000 mi (16,000 km) and a maximum payload of 87,200 lb (39,600 kg), the B-36 was capable of intercontinental flight without refuelling.
The Convair B-58 Hustler, designed and produced by American aircraft manufacturer Convair, was the first operational bomber capable of Mach 2 flight.
The Convair XC-99, AF Ser. No. 43-52436, is a prototype heavy cargo aircraft built by Convair for the United States Air Force. It was the largest piston-engined land-based transport aircraft ever built, and was developed from the Convair B-36 Peacemaker bomber, sharing the wings and some other structures with it. The first flight was on 24 November 1947 in San Diego, California, and after testing it was delivered to the Air Force on 26 May 1949. The Convair Model 37 was a planned civil passenger variant based on the XC-99 but was not built.
The Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major is an American 28-cylinder four-row radial piston aircraft engine designed and built during World War II. First run in 1944, at 4,362.5 cu in (71.5 L), it is the largest-displacement aviation piston engine to be mass-produced in the United States, and at 4,300 hp (3,200 kW) the most powerful. It was the last of the Pratt & Whitney Wasp family, and the culmination of its maker's piston engine technology.
The National Museum of the United States Air Force is the official museum of the United States Air Force located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, six miles (9.7 km) northeast of Dayton, Ohio. The NMUSAF is the oldest and largest military aviation museum in the world, with more than 360 aircraft and missiles on display. The museum draws about a million visitors each year, making it one of the most frequently visited tourist attractions in Ohio.
The Pima Air & Space Museum, located in Tucson, Arizona, is one of the world's largest non-government funded aerospace museums. The museum features a display of nearly 400 aircraft spread out over 80 acres (320,000 m2) on a campus occupying 127 acres (510,000 m2). It has also been the home to the Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame since 1991.
Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth includes Carswell Field, a military airbase located 5 nautical miles west of the central business district of Fort Worth, in Tarrant County, Texas, United States. This military airfield is operated by the United States Navy Reserve. It is located in the cities of Fort Worth, Westworth Village, and White Settlement in the western part of the Fort Worth urban area.
Carswell Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force (USAF) base, located northwest of Fort Worth, Texas. For most of its operational lifetime, the base's mission was to train and support heavy strategic bombing groups and wings.
The Convair C-131 Samaritan is an American twin-engined military transport produced from 1954 to 1956 by Convair. It is the military version of the Convair CV-240 family of airliners.
Castle Air Museum is a military aviation museum located in Atwater, California, United States adjacent to Castle Airport, a former United States Air Force Strategic Air Command base which was closed in 1995, after the end of the Cold War. It is one of the largest aerospace museums displaying vintage aircraft in the western United States.
The Radioplane BTT, known as RP-71 by the company, as WS-426/2 by the United States Navy, and as WS-462/2 by the US Air Force, is a family of target drones produced by the Radioplane Company.
The South Dakota Air and Space Museum is an aviation museum located in Box Elder, South Dakota, just outside the main gate of Ellsworth AFB. It is dedicated to the history of the United States Air Force, the base and aerospace in South Dakota.
The 7th Bomb Wing is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the Global Strike Command Eighth Air Force. It is stationed at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, where it is also the host unit.
The Mark 17 and Mark 24 were the first mass-produced hydrogen bombs deployed by the United States. The two differed in their "primary" stages. They entered service in 1954, and were phased out by 1957.
Air Force Plant 4 is a government-owned, contractor-operated aerospace facility in Fort Worth, Texas, currently owned by the U.S. Air Force and operated by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. It is home to the F-16 and F-35 fighter aircraft. Military aircraft have been manufactured at the plant since 1942. Plant 4 is adjacent to Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, formerly Carswell Air Force Base.
Biggs Army Airfield is a United States Army military airbase located on the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas.