America at the end of the Second World War was a wildly different place. Brimming with self-confidence after having just defeated the greatest set of rivals the country had ever faced, inundated with ...

The B-36 Peacemaker was more than just another bomber in a long line of bombers. It was conceived to fight an enemy—the Nazis—that had collapsed by the time the bombers were built.

Although reliable in flight, the engine required extensive and time consuming checks at startup and shutdown. Beginning in 1941, the gigantic Convair B-36 strategic bomber was likely planned around ...