What's this thing do?

[Richard D]

Hello Electron john, You found me out. I was probably 13 to 15 years old when we had access to the aircraft. There were all kinds of stories going around. The new private owners could not get an Faa airwortheness certificate, it was going to be turned into a flying casino in South America, the owners tried to torch it to collect insurance, who knows. The other one became a advertising sign and canopy for an Alamo gas station somewhere out west. We had to enter the aircraft by climbing up the nose wheel and strut. When I first saw it the cockpit was in pretty good shape, no burn damage, a few instruments missing. As time went by vandals broke the instrument window glass, what a shame. It's huge main gear had some of the biggest DC motors I ever saw whose job was to spin the main gear up before the tires hit the runway, talk about heavy. I bet it would have weighed half as much if built with modern knowhow. The alumunum skin had to be twice as thick as modern airliners. The electronics bay alone had to weigh many tons. Getting off topic here, sorry.
Richard.

[electronjohn]

Not that fat off topic: remember, everything in that electronics bay was TUBE TYPE! I went to avionics school back in 70-71, and we had a Douglas DC-7C as our playroom. Nearly everything on the plane had no application to what we werer studying, but it certainly was fun!

[polaraman]

There is a man in Newberry Ohio that has 3/4 of a B 36 in his yard. He does not like anybody to get close to it. It was trucked there from Wright Patterson in the mid 1960's. I would hate to restore a plane that large. Televisions are enough trouble as it is.


polaraman

[bgadow]

I can well remember back when the tv show "Real People" was on (a great show, I thought) and they had a guy who had converted some type of airplane into a motorhome. I don't know my planes but it wasn't tiny. No wings, of course. Around here all we have are a couple of old ships that were run aground and turned into restaurants, back when such a novelty was worth something.

[Richard D]

I vaguely remember that episode, which reminded of a story in one of the car magazines, Car & Driver maybe? They did an ongoing story of a family who converted a semi milk trailer into a home and vehicle that could be driven on public roads and was seaworthy enough that it crossed one of the oceans, they drove it around the earth once. It had a long name but I think part of it was called Dobbertin earth orbiter. Anybody else remember this? I did go through my teen years in the 1970s so I might have just had a dream.
Best To All,
Richard.

[Sandy G]

Ahh, the B-36 ! 4 burnin' & 6 turnin'... I remember seeing pics of the prototype, it had single wheels on the main gear, the tire was like 10' tall...Somebody decided that it might NOT be a good idea if they had a blow-out on landing w/ a bomber full of nukes, so the landing gear was changed into a "bogie" that had more normal-sized tires...I'd like to have a 36...I'd love it 'n' pet it, 'n' play w/it, polish its aluminum, 'n' call it "George"...<grin>-Sandy G.

[bgadow]

Richard, I think that article was in Car and Driver, but not that long ago-maybe in the mid to late 90s? Or maybe I'm confusing it with the guy who sells amphibious motor homes? He has been in one of those mags, too. For some reason this all reminds me of the trailer home that used to tour the state fair circuit (and maybe still does) which was a log from a giant redwood or something, hollowed out so you could walk through it. Twice I paid my money for the chance to pass through. Heck, I only paid once to see the giant alligator...

[Richard D]

Here is a blurb showing this scarry vehicle.

http://www.gadgetopia.com/post/1941

[gearhead]

Yeah, Rick Dobbertin built some pretty cool Pro Street cars in the late '70s - early '80s. When he got tired of that, or could not build anything wilder than the polished-frame J2000, he built the Surface Orbiter.
I saw it at the Street Machine Nats in Duquoin, IL one year.