Help Put Another B-29 into the Air

Machine Design ^ | 6/5/2003 | Ronald Khol

[quietolong]

Help Put Another B-29 into the Air

by Ronald Khol, Editor

There were thousands of Boeing B-29 Superfortresses built during World War II. They are magnificent airplanes with four massive engines, propellers 16 feet in diameter, and a wingspan of 141 feet. That distance is longer than the Wright Brothers first flight. After the war, a few B-29s were spirited away to become static displays in museums, and others were assigned to a Navy gunnery range for use as targets. But most were chopped to pieces and sold for scrap.

In the entire world, only one B-29 remains in flyable condition. It is owned by the Confederate Air Force. (I refuse to call the organization by its new name, the Commemorative Air Force. The name change was forced on the organization by political correctness run amok, but that's a whole other story.)

At any rate, let me introduce you to Tony Mazzolini, who in his day job is regional manager of materials services for the Continental Airlines maintenance base in Cleveland. Tony joined the Confederate Air Force in the early 1980s, and shortly thereafter founded the Cleveland Wing of the CAF. I first met him when I joined the CAF more than 10 years ago. As a young man, he had served as an Air Force flight engineer on several multiengine aircraft, including a B-29, and he got it into his head that maybe there was still another B-29 somewhere that the CAF could acquire and return to flying status. He began his search and eventually found one at the Navy Weapons Center in China Lake, Calif. It was in sorry shape, but the essential parts were intact and deemed restorable.

Meanwhile, the CAF decided it didn't need a second B-29, so Tony embarked alone in an attempt to bring the B-29 out of the desert and make it airworthy. For this purpose he founded an organization called the United States Aviation Museum.

Now I'll fast forward to the present. After an arduous odyssey too complex to relate here, he managed to save the B-29, and it is currently being rebuilt at a facility of the Boeing Airplane Co. in Wichita, Kans. Although I have belonged to USAM for several years, in addition to retaining CAF membership, my day job kept me too busy to contribute to either organization in a meaningful way. However, several months ago, Tony invited me to become the USAM volunteer public-relations director.

So that is why I am writing about a B-29 here in Machine Design. I am making a blatant appeal for new members as well as financial support for USAM. (Memberships for individuals are a mere $60 per year.) Already, numerous corporations and individuals support our effort, and although we are grateful to see even dollar bills put into our donation jug at fund-raising events, I am hoping this column will inspire major corporate Sugar Daddies to step forward. You know who you are. I see you sponsoring air shows and aircraft appearances across the nation. Surely there is room in your budget to help us with our B-29. We are in special need of funds to cover the cost of overhauling the four engines. In all, we can use either financial support or assistance with aircraft components and subsystems. If things go according to plan, the B-29 could take to the air early next year.

-- Ronald Khol, Editor

mdeditor@penton.com

Link to Help Put Another B-29 into the Air story

[quietolong]

It would be great to see a B-29 with the B-24, B-17, B-25 & B-26s on tour

Now if we could get that B-36 flying.

[ThePythonicCow]

From http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/URG/b29superfortress.html :

---

Boeing B-29 Superfortress

---

---

Type: High-Altitude Heavy Bombing Origin: Boeing Models: Model 345, B-29 to B-29C Crew: Ten to Fourteen First Flight: September 21, 1942 Squadron Delivery: July 1943 Combat Debut: June 5, 1944 Final Delivery: May 1946 Production: 3,000+ Powerplant: Model: Wright R-3350-23 Duplex Cyclone Type: 18-cylinder radials with 2 turbine driven    turbochargers Number: Four       Horsepower: 2,200 Dimensions: Wing Span: 141 ft. 3 in. (43.05m) Length: 99 ft. (30.2m) Height: 27 ft. 9 in. (8.46m) Wing Area: N/A

Weights: Empty: 74,500 lb. (33,795 kg.) Loaded: 135,000 lb. (61,240 kg.) Performance: Max. Speed: 357 mph (575 km/h) Cruising Speed: 290 mph (467 km/h) Climb to 25,000 ft. (7620m): 43 minutes Service Ceiling: 36,000 ft. (10,973 m) Range (With 10,000 lb. bombload):     3,250 miles (5230 km) Armament: Four GE Twin 0.50 in. in turrets above and below.   -Sighted from nose or three waist sighting stations. Bell tail turret with one 20mm cannon and     two 0.50 machine guns. Bomb Load: Internal load of 20,000 lb. (9072 kg.)

---

Comments:
   One of the most involved designs developed during the war. The B-29 suffered a few teething problems, including a catastrophic loss of a prototype, before evolving into a devastating bombing platform.
   The B-29 entered combat on June 5, 1944 with the 58th Bomb Wing. By 1945 20 groups operated from the Marianas and were sending streams of 500 bombers to flatten Japan. Several of these aircraft made emergency landings in Soviet territories, the Soviets then reverse engineered them to produce the Tu-4 bomber and later developed the Tu-70 transport.
   Probably the most famous, or infamous depending on your viewpoint, use of the B-29 was in the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan in 1945.
   The B-29C had all the guns except the tail armament removed, increasing speed and altitude. Several variants were produced after the war, including the WB-29 which was used for weather research.
   The RAF flew the type as the Washington B.1 from 1950 to 1958.

[quietolong]

That B-36 sight moved had to find it.

Last B-36
http://www.b-36peacemakermuseum.org/History/part1.htm

One thing interesting

>>>> Alarmed by the possibility of the plane becoming airworthy, the Air Force decreed that work cease on the flyout effort. They explained that the plane would be a threat to national security and would be a huge safety hazard if allowed to operate under civilian control. <<<

[snopercod]

There's a lot more to the story of the B-29 flyout of China Lake.

[Brian Allen]

<< One thing interesting

Alarmed by the possibility of the plane becoming airworthy, the Air Force decreed that work cease on the flyout effort. They explained that the plane would be a threat to national security and would be a huge safety hazard if allowed to operate under civilian control. >>

A noble sentiment absolutely lost on the execable traitor and serial-sexual offender, the predatory Peking psychopaths' "nanren men zai hua sheng tun," KKKling Tong and his evil gang of co-serial rapists, who gave away a Trillion Dollars of America's most sacred space, rocketry, computer and science-engineering secrets -- and entire aircraft manufacturing limes -- whole factories! -- complete with the computers and their codings needed to catapault Peking's mass-murderers from hesperophobic middle-ages mutterers to major threat.

[Jimmy Valentine]

They have one of these at the Wright-Patterson museum. There is no judging its true size and impact until you stand next to it.

The wheels are 6 foot in diameter.

[Skooz]

I have always wished that I had been alive and uber-wealthy in late 1945 so I could have bought many of the old warbirds that were so plentious then, and so rare now.

[wolficatZ]

 

I like to take my B29 out for a spin every now and then..lol.  Check out these two films if you are interested in the B29...

 

View movie scenes
Run Time: 20:06

Stream	?
DSL:	Real	QT
Modem:	Real	QT
Download	?
MPEG2	(481.6M)
DivX	(69.0M)
MPEG1	(210.7M)
MPEG4	(51.6M)
Editable	?
MPEG4	(452.8M)

Download options

This item is on:
movies04.archive.org

 

View movie scenes
Run Time: 8:24

Stream	?
DSL:	Real	QT
Modem:	Real	QT
Download	?
MPEG2	(233.0M)
DivX	(27.4M)
MPEG1	(87.9M)
MPEG4	(21.7M)
Editable	?
MPEG4	(120.6M)

Download options

This item is on:
movies04.archive.org

Target Invisible

ca. 1945

Illustrates the use of radar on a dramatized mission over Japan. (B-29s)

Sponsor: U.S. Army Air Forces
Producer: U.S. Army Air Forces
Audio/Visual: Sd, B&W
Keywords: World War II: Radar; World War II: Japan; World War II: Army Air ForcesCreative Commons license: Public Domain

Birth of the B-29

1945

Design, production and testing of World War II bomber.

Sponsor: N/A
Producer: U.S. Army Air Forces
Audio/Visual: Sd, B&W
Keywords: World War II: Aviation; Aviation: MilitaryCreative Commons license: Public Domain

[Matthew James]

Ping

[gatorbait]

40th BG,58th BW ! My 13 year old girl loves the B 29 .. (She's a Hellbird, in fact)

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

It is owned by the Confederate Air Force. (I refuse to call the organization by its new name, the Commemorative Air Force. The name change was forced on the organization by political correctness run amok...

I am an aviation fanatic. But the above quote is perhaps the most disgusting fact in the whole article.

[The Mayor]

That is a beautiful aircraft

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Lemme fix that fuselage for ya.

[norton]

What?

"I refuse to call the organization by its new name, the Commemorative Air Force. The name change was forced on the organization by political correctness run amok, but that's a whole other story..."

How'd I miss that one? Did they replace the stars and bars with a white flag?

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Did anyone else catch that special on Nova a couple of years back about a B-29 that had been discovered somewhere way up North near the arctic circle and was being refurbished?

I don't recall the name of the group doing the work but it took them years and years of trying to scrape together the funds.

Long story short....when they actually got the work done and it came time for the flyout, the big beastie was taxiing down a runway they'd fashioned out of the snow...as it made a 90 degree turn into the wind it seems there was a toolbox that had been left unsecured in the rear of the aircraft. This toolbox slid across the deck and slammed into a heating unit in the aft area and started a fire. It went out of control and the entire B-29 burned up over the next 2 hours and all anyone could do was stand there and watch it burn. They had no fire fighting equipment of any kind to battle that kind of blaze.

I watched that film and I cried. It was heartbreaking.

[Vinnie]

Now if we could get that B-36 flying.

When I was a kid in S. Fla. the neighborhood kids played football in my front yard almost every afternoon.
Around 4 pm every day a B-36 would fly over at altitude. By the unique sound it was easily identified. We would stop our game and watch in awe its passing.

One Armed Forces Day a squadron of them made a low pass down Biscayne Blvd. in Miami. One of the most fantastic sights I've ever witnessed.

I always watch "Stratigic Air Command" when it is on the tube. Love that plane.

Pan Am and other airlines used to fly Stratocruiser aircraft. They were a civilian version of the B-29. Several S. American cargo haulers flew them out of Miami well into the 60's and 70's.
I remember seeing one Ransa Stratocruiser ( overloaded I'm sure) overfly Lejeune Rd.( the Eastern perimeter of Miami Intl.) with about 50' of rope and a wheel chock hanging from the undercarriage.

[wolficatZ]

Not to mention their chief mechanic Rick Kriege worked himself to death at the onsite restoration...

[wolficatZ]

That's great! I'll never forget when I was kid; we were driving to Galveston and I saw a P-40 and an At-6 "Zero" dogfighting over the bay as part of an airshow, with a long smoketrail coming out of the Zero. Caught the bug right then!

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks for the ping to this story snopercod.

[Skooz]