The largest piston-powered airplane ever mass-produced, Convairs B-36 "Peacemaker" was also the worlds first thermonuclear bomber. The genesis of this behemoth can be traced to WWII, when U.S. planners determined that if the British were defeated, a very-long-range bomber would be needed to battle the Nazis.

The prototype B-36 flew in 1946 and was quickly upgraded as the need for a bomber with a large lifting capacity - the early fission and later hydrogen bombs were both large and heavy - became paramount. Yet, when it entered active service in 1949, the "aluminum overcast" was already...