Rare Look At B-36 Retractable Defensive Turrets

Youtube / Justin Gibb
Transformers In The ’40s
Take a quick look at how this bad boy utilizes its defensive turrets. Named the “Peacemaker”, this B-36’s turrets can retract out of the compartment to brutally bring peace to its foes. Each turret had two 20mm cannons fitted to it to really demonstrate its peace-making ways.

No pilot in the air would be the same if they saw 6 turrets come out of a seemingly normal bomber plane. But, you wouldn’t mind it that much when you notice the number of bombs it can also carry. Particularly its ability to carry the Mark-17 Hydrogen Bomb into battle.

Due to several mechanical failures, the engineers assigned to the B-36 decided to remove the retractable turrets, cutting the manpower to operate it from 15 to 9.