First flight of Convair YB-60, 49-2676. Beryl Erickson was the pilot on the first flight of the YB-60 on April 18, 1952, three days after the first flight of the Boeing YB-52 Stratofortress.

The YB-60, 49-2676 was Convair's alternative to the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress. It is seen here in flight over Texas.

The cruise speed of the YB-60 was only 467 miles per hour compared to the Stratofortress's cruise speed of 521 miles per hour. The flight controls had been designed for operation at much lower airspeeds, so the control forces were very high and the response of the airplane was slow. Photo courtesy AFFTC/HO.

The stalling speed of the YB-60 was 140 miles per hour.  That is about 30 miles per hour slower than the stalling speed of the B-52.  The wing of the YB-60 (5,239 square feet) was much larger than the wing of the B-52 (4,000 square feet) and the maximum weight of the YB-60 was only 410,000 pounds compared to the maximum gross weight of 450,000 pounds for the B-52.

Convair made 20 test flights of the YB-60 and accumulated 66 hours of flight time. The Air Force cancelled the B-60 production program on August 14, 1952. Photo courtesy AFFTC/HO.

YB-60 on Edwards Air Force Base old south base flightline. It was assigned to Edwards Air Force Base in January 1953 for the Phase II tests of the type. Lt. Col. Boyd L. Grubaugh was the flight test pilot and Frederick N. Stoliker was the flight test engineer. Photo courtesy AFFTC/HO.

YB-60 and B-36F-5, 49-2683 on Edwards Air Force Base south base flightline. Photo courtesy AFFTC/HO.

YB-60 takes off from the old main runway of Edwards Air Force Base. Photo courtesy AFFTC/HO.

YB-60 in flight. Only four flights of the Phase II test series had been completed when the Air Research and Development Command cancelled the test program on January 20, 1953. The YB-60 was flown for fifteen hours and forty-five minutes in the course of the four flights. Photo courtesy AFFTC/HO.

YB-60 in flight over Kramers Junction at the intersection of Highways 58 and 395 northeast of Edwards Air Force Base. Photo courtesy AFFTC/HO.

Night shot of YB-60 on south base ramp. Photo courtesy AFFTC/HO.

There's a new sheriff in town. The cowboy in the foreground is Bill Whiteside, the son of Walter W. Whiteside, the chief maintenance officer at Edwards in the early 50's. The photo appeared on the front page of the Edwards Air Force Base paper and possibly on the front page of the Air Force Times. Note the enormous hydrogen bomb test shape just to the left of the access stand. Photo courtesy AFFTC/HO.

Rare color photo of the YB-60 over Rogers Dry Lake on the approach to the old main runway. Photo courtesy AFFTC/HO.

Books about B-36 Peacemakers available from

Dennis Jenkins has produced another large B-36 book: Magnesium Overcast.

Meyers Jacobsen has authored another book about the Convair B-36 Peacemaker: A Photo Chronicle.

Convair B-36 : A Comprehensive History of America's 'Big Stick by Meyers K. Jacobsen. Mr. Jacobsen has been compiling this history for at least a quarter of a century.

Warbird Tech: Convair B-36 Peacemaker . This volume by Dennis Jenkins contains a surprising amount of information that did not get into "The Big Stick".

The history of the efforts to preserve B-36J, 52-22827 at Fort Worth is well documented in "B-36: Saving the Last Peacemaker"; Second Edition, an html book on CD.

Go to the main Convair B-36 page.

Go to home page of the Goleta Air and Space Museum.

Send a message to Brian.