Today In History:  08 August  [1946]   --  Initial flight of the first 10-engine aircraft, the B-36 Peacemaker

The first 10-engine aircraft, the Convair B-36 Peracemaker, made its first successful test flight. The B-36 is the largest mass-produced piston-engined aircraft ever built. It has the longest wingspan of any combat aircraft ever built, at 230 ft (70 m) and it 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.
PHOTO: The B-36 prototype (right) alongside a Boeing B-29 Superfortress at Carswell AFB, Ft. Worth, Texas, June 1948

See the Historical Aviation Film Unit website at http://www.aviationfilm.com to get a new history tidbit every day.


Photo Attribution:  Public Domain  via Wikimedia. United States Air Force Historical Research Agency, Maxwell AFB, Alabama