Comments on: Six turning and four burning https://www.isegoria.net/2017/10/six-turning-and-four-burning/ From the ancient Greek for equality in freedom of speech; an eclectic mix of thoughts, large and small Sun, 31 May 2026 02:04:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6.1 By: Bruce https://www.isegoria.net/2017/10/six-turning-and-four-burning/comment-page-1/#comment-2588208 Bruce Mon, 16 Oct 2017 18:36:48 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=42482#comment-2588208 Jerry Pournelle wrote somewhere that B-36s normally landed in the ditch next to the runway. Largest wingspan ever isn’t great when you try to land.

]]> By: Lu An Li https://www.isegoria.net/2017/10/six-turning-and-four-burning/comment-page-1/#comment-2588201 Lu An Li Mon, 16 Oct 2017 17:58:01 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=42482#comment-2588201 So many B-29s [previously unopposed] over Korea were shot down by MiG-15s that the bomber raids had to be stopped. Even with escorts. Losses prohibitive.

]]> By: Scipio Americanus https://www.isegoria.net/2017/10/six-turning-and-four-burning/comment-page-1/#comment-2588104 Scipio Americanus Mon, 16 Oct 2017 00:16:11 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=42482#comment-2588104 It’s interesting, a lot of sources talk about how the B-36 was rendered obsolete by the advent of first jet fighters but that wasn’t actually the case (at least not at first). It flew at an altitude where even F-86/MiG-15 era fighters were barely controllable (in tests, the force of firing the F-86′s guns at that altitude alone was enough to cause dangerous flight instabilities). Because of it’s large control and flight surfaces, the B-36 could actually out-maneuver jet-fighters sent to intercept it at its cruising altitude. It took another several years of jet development before it became truly vulnerable, by which point it was being phased out.

Occasionally, SAMs are mentioned as a cause of obsoletion, but only by the standards of the rosy projections of missile performance common to the ’50s. The early SAMs were atrociously unreliable in service.

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