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...

 

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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]

[Teacher317]

Oh yeah?

[Skooz]

lol!

Looks like a TA-152.

[SAMWolf]

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.)

Hurray for this author! I also still call it the Confederate Air Force.

[SAMWolf]

LOL! The German answer to our "long nosed" Mustang.

[pttttt]

Now if we could get that B-36 flying.

Apparently there are 6 left in varying condition.

One of the better shots of restoring one - or at least a variant - to flight may be the XC-99 (photos at above link).

[pttttt]

Sorry, no photos at that link! Here are some XC-99 photos.

[wolficatZ]

 

 

I just had to download the B-36 and fly it around BoraBora for a few minutes, not the most detailed model but not too bad.

Since I just got a new vidcard, I was thinking of getting MSFS 2004, I wonder if any Freepers have it..

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

B-17, P-47, P-51D and a P-39.

What do I win?

[wita]

I guess I'm outta touch with my FS 2002 if you can download B-36's and then fly them. How about the Desert Storm, Desert Shield, etc, version where you can load an entire squadron of them with Nucular (tongue in cheek pronunciation) bombs, and take them on a 6 or 7,000 mile journey of your choice. Have they come out with that one yet?

[wita]

Interesting! I was inside, and all around the very B-29 your post is talking about, and just two weeks ago. It is called DOC as in one of the seven dwarfs. It is in the process of being put back together after being in pieces. The fuselage was still in three parts, but close to being put back together.

It has it's own hanger on the Boeing side of McConnell AFB, Wichita, KS. It is being rebuilt by Boeing and a virtual handful of retired Boeing folks who just love old airplanes. The engines are at the rebuilder and will cost some 150 big ones each, to rebuild if I remember my numbers. There is a website but I'll have to look it up.

[Xthe17th]

In the entire world, only one B-29 remains in flyable condition

Perhaps we can get a TU from the Russians? The Soviets TU is a rivet-for-rivet copy (minus the belly gun turret) of the B29. (Recent show on the History Channel about this).

[Cloud William]

Nice images. I've been meaning to buy MSFS 2004 ever since a FReeper mentioned the real-time weather feature. If there's a hurricane in the Atlantic, you can select a C-130 and play "Hurricane Hunter".

I've always been awed by the B-36. Never seen one except in photos and when Strategic Air Command comes on television, but I did once sit in the left seat of the CAF's "FiFi". That B-29 is just awesome, from the oil puddles under the huge radials to the art-deco "Boeing" logo on the black bakelite control wheel.

After getting the tour of the B-29, I hung around and watched it take off. What an amazing machine... a formation of those bombers must've looked like an "aluminum overcast" indeed. Sixty bucks a year for an individual membership to help get another one back in the air? That's a bargain, I'd feel remiss if I didn't help, even if just a little bit.

I'd sure love to see a flight-worthy B-36, too - but I suspect I'll have to be content with slight simulators, pictures and such. It's a shame, too... I'd really love to see the "six turning, four burning" takeoff in person.

Here's a great old picture of a B-36, dated 1951 (high over the Wichita, Kansas area):

[Skooz]

B-17, P-47, P-51D and a P-39.

What do I win?

A chance at our exciting Bonus Round:

[wolficatZ]

Nice pic!..here's the list of  known B-29s and B-36s in existence. ( I think)


Boeing B-29 Superfortress
Baugher
Special thanks to Mark Wilkinson for a lot of this data

B29       42-65281  OCT94  P  Travis AFB Museum (CA)              
B29       42-65287     96     Under water off of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico
B29       42-93967         P  Georgia Veterans State Park (GA)   
B29       44-27297  JUN95  B  Wright Patterson AFB (OH) MUSEUM "Bock's Car"	
B29       44-27343  JUN94  P  TINKER AFB (OK)                 
B29A      Composite        B  Castle Air Museum (CA) as "44-61535"
B29       44-61671         P  Whiteman AFB
B29       44-61669  JAN94     MARCH AFB (CA) MUSEUM           
TB29      44-61739            Robins AFB (GA) Nose only
B29       44-61748         P  Imperial War Museum, Duxford (UK)   
B29       44-61975  MAY96  B  New England Air Museum (CT) Under Restoration             
B29       44-62022  JUN97  P  PUEBLO (C0), MEMORIAL AIRPORT   
B29       44-62070@        P  American Airpower Heritage Museum Commemorative AF, Midland (TX) "Fifi"   
B29       44-62139  JUN95  B  Wright Patterson AFB (OH) MUSEUM Fuselage only
B29       44-62220  DEC98  P  Kelly Field Heritage Museum  Museum (TX)   
B29       44-69729  AUG94  P  Seattle (WA), MUSEUM OF FLIGHT  
B29       44-69972         B  Wichita (KS) Under restoration to flying status
B29       44-70016  FEB95  B  PIMA COUNTY MUSEUM (AZ)         
B-29-80-BW44-70049            Aero Trader, Chino (CA)
B-29-BW   44-70113  JUL98  P  Dobbins AFB, Atlanta (GA) "Sweet Eloise"
KB-29P    44-83905  MAY98  B  Eielson AFB (AK) "Lady of the Lake"
B29B      44-84053  MAR96  P  Robins AFB (GA)                 
B29(TB)   44-84076  JUN95     Strategic Air & Space Museum (NE)                 
B-29-6-BA 44-84084            Aero Trader, Chino (CA)
B29       44-86292         B  NASM SMITHSONIAN  "Enola Gay"   
B29       44-86408  JUL94  P  Hill Aerospace  Museum (UT)             
B29A      44-87627  DEC96  P  Barksdale AFB (LA)
B29A      44-87779  JUN96  P  ELLSWORTH AFB (SD) MUSEUM       
B29       45-21739  ?         Seoul, Korea         
B29       45-21748  FEB94  P  Sandia Natl Atomic Museum (NM)  as "45-01749"
B29       45-21787         B  Weeks Air Museum 
B29       Unknown   ???       American Memorial Park - Saipan?
                              Aircraft is not there & has not been, rumored to be coming                              

Consolidated B-36 Peacemaker Baugher

RB36H     51-13730         B  Castle Air Museum (CA)  
B36J      52-02217  JUN95     Strategic Air & Space Museum (NE)                 
B36       52-02220  JUN95  B  Wright Patterson AFB (OH) MUSEUM
B36       52-02827  NOV87     CARSWELL AFB                   

[stratman1969]

I used to live in Harilngen, TX when the Conferedate Air Force was still there and went to nearly all the airshows. Fifi is a magnificent plane. I took the tour of her once. I also got to fly in the B-17 "Texas Raiders" once.

[Travis McGee]

In the waiting areas at the MAC (I hate saying AMC, it reminds me of Gremlins) Terminal on Guam, they have huge old black and white wall posters made from blown-up WW2 recon. imagery photos. They have pictures of the entire Andersen AFB on Guam in 1945, and also the bases on Tinian and Saipan.

On ONE single photo, taken on ONE DAY on Guam in 1945, you can by hand count more than 200 B-29s. In ONE PHOTO, of ONE BASE. It's staggering. And almost as many are seen on the bases on Tinian and Saipan.

(I put a little salute to the invasion of Guam in EFAD on the top of page 508. People forget what a hellacious campaign it was to recapture the Marianas, and why they were so critical: those countless hundreds of B-29s!)

[Mike the lurker]

Thats a Lockheed C-69 1st version of the Constellation

[Old Professer]

Meanwhile, Murphy just smiled in that maddening, mischievious manner he had.

[Rebelbase]

Funny graphics, They look like GeeBee bombers.

Is Fifi still flying? I had the pleasure of crawling around inside her about 15 years ago.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

A chance at our exciting Bonus Round:

Hmmmm. A toughy. It's a transport. A C-69?

[MamaB]

My brother was stationed at Carswell in the 50's and early 60's. He loved flying. He celebrated his 16th birthday in Greenland.

[JoeFromSidney]

The FinnAir training center in Finland is located on a former Luftwaffe base from WWII. The "officers club" is exactly as the Germans left it when they departed. The bar looks like the bar in every USAF officers club I ever used. Anyway, the walls are covered with pictures of German aircraft, including the FW190. I found it a bit strange to be seeing "the other side of the war," but still enjoyable.

[henderson field]

"Should have bought warbirds in late 1945?" Yes, P-51s were selling then for $1500. A friend of mine bought 3 of them. He would fly them until they needed an overhaul and then park them on the tarmac because, even then, an overhaul was more than $1500.

[Aracelis]

A beautiful warbird! Bump for restoration!!!

[quietolong]

B-29 Frozen in Time
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2303b29.html

[quietolong]

I once read a mid-50s book on US air power. On one of the pages there was a Air Force picture of all there current aircraft in use at the time parked on the ramp together. In the back row sat a B-52 and a B-36 side by side. The B-36 Dwarf the B-52!

How big is a B-52.

Back when I was a kid I built modal aircraft kits in 1/72 scale. Because there were some what small and easier to display. Until the one time I got a B-52 in 1/72 The thing was HUGE! The wing span was over 3 Ft. & the top of the tail was 2 ft’ off the foor. And like 4 ft long. I didn’t know were to put it. I used two jars of paint and that didn’t even finish one side of the tail! ( gave up trying to paint it black. Didn’t want to spend that much for paint)
And a B-36 is even Bigger!

To bad that one web sight is no longer on line. It had some great things about 36s. Maybe if I poke around the link I posted I’ll find they have more from it.

[wolficatZ]

The Monogram 1/72 B-52. I remember that kit.

[wita]

As a teenager around the seventh grade, I used to live in Arlington VA My dad was stationd at Bolling, AFB Which almost doesn't exist today. Each summer they would have an air show. The one I remember most was I believe in 1951 when the Enola Gay was on display. It must have been provided by the Smithsonian, unless it was still an actively flying B-29 with the Air Force, which it could have been, because it had to fly to get there. Visitors actually got to go inside the airplane. I can remember sitting at the aft blister on the right side looking out at all the people and the hanger it was parked near.

One interesting point regarding B-29s that I learned at the visit to "DOC" in Wichita, was that there was no corrosion control during the construction of the aircraft. They were considered throwaway planes. They would not be around long enough to require it. Corrosion control and repair of corrosion, was most evident during my visit to "Doc"

[Matthew James]

The B-29 was a real work-horse in WWII. Afterward, during the Cold War they did great recon work in their RB-29 configuration.

[pttttt]

Perhaps we can get a TU from the Russians?

Or the Chinese, ironically. They were still flying a turboprop version of the Tu-4 as an AEW testbed as late as the 1970's (well before the Phalcon idea). Though that might be a long design evolution away from the original B-29.