B-29

Βομβαρδιστικό βαρέως τύπου, τετρακινητήριο, ελικοφόρο, κατασκευασμένο από την Boeing για τις Ενωμένες Πολιτείες. Χρησιμοποιήθηκε σε στρατιωτικές επιχειρήσεις κυρίως κατά τον 2ο Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο και τον Πόλεμο της Κορέας. Το όνομά Superfortress (υπέρ φρούριο) προήλθε από τον προκάτοχό του B-17 Flying Fortress και συνεχίστηκε και στα επόμενα μοντέλα βομβαρδιστικών της Boeing. Κατασκευάστηκαν περίπου 4.000 τέτοια βομβαρδιστικά στη περίοδο 1943 έως 1946, ενώ αποσύρθηκε οριστικά το 1960
To B-29 αν και προηγμένο τεχνολογικά και οπλικά για την εποχή του, συμμετείχε σχετικά λίγο σε αποστολές του 2ου Παγκοσμίου Πολέμου, καθώς η παραγωγή του ξεκίνησε το 1944, στο τέλος του πολέμου δηλαδή. Αποτέλεσε το βασικό βομβαρδιστικό των Αμερικανών στο τέλος του πολέμου και χρησιμοποιήθηκε κυρίως κατά της Ιαπωνίας. Ήταν επίσης το αεροπλάνο που μετέφερε και έριξε τις ατομικές βόμβες στο Ναγκασάκι και τη Χιροσίμα. Ήταν οπλισμένο με 12 πολυβόλα M2 Browning 0.5 ιντσών, από τα οποία, τα 10 ήταν τηλεχειριζόμενα και μπορούσε να μεταφέρει βόμβες μέγιστου βάρους 9 τόνων

Μερικά από τα χαρακτηριστικά του ήταν:

Μήκος: 30.2 μ.
¶νοιγμα πτερυγίων: 43.1 μ.
Μέγιστο βάρος φορτίου: 30 τόνοι
Μέγιστη ταχύτητα: 357 μίλια/ώρα
Ακτίνα δράσης: 5.230 χλμ.

I was stationed at Barksdale AFB from 1951 to 1954 and flew in a Kb29. We were refueling B-29's. Inflight refueling in the early stages of this learning curve was interesting to say the least. In 1952 we flew to England and were training over there from came back home to Barksddale in early 1953. I was a Radio Operator at the time.

Hi , Im looking to buy 2 B29 breathing oxygen bottles (stainless steel)if anyone can help It would be most appreciated.
Regards
Glenn

I was a Tail Gunner on Capt.Sheppards crew flew 26 mission over North Korea from August '52 thru Febuary '53 with the 372 BS,307 Bw from Kadena AFB Okinawa.

I was a Tail Gunner on Capt.Sheppards crew flew 26 mission over North Korea from August '52 thru Febuary '53 with the 372 BS,307 Bw from Kadena AFB Okinawa.

I was a tailgunner on this aircraft in the korean war. Stationed at Yakoto AB in Japan 1952. Flew 27 missions over North Korea.

This aircraft not only is fantastic . But a beautiful piece of equipment. The only problem i saw with it was that it had no glide power. Drops like a rock. And loves oil leaks.

Has anyone seen a film " Last flight of Noah's Ark".The pilot ( Eliot Gould- I think ) starts the engines of his B29 from the flight engineers position, goes to the front and then takes off all by himself. Seems unlikley. Sometimes I think these guys at Disney just make stuff up.
Terrible film. Some nice flying sequences though..

My father Vern Floyd Olson was stationed at Yakota AB in Fussa Tokyo during the Korean war. I recently came across this excerpt in a letter he wrote home in December 1955, and would love to learn more about this incident. Dad never discussed his military service.

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"Maybe you read in the paper or heard on the radio that we had a ship crack up. That was the third and we haven't had any peace yet, or they still don't know why it happened.

They took off at 0415 & found their gear wouldn't come up all the way and also wouldn't go back down. It was jammed right where it was at.

The ship was “Miss FuFu”, one of the 29s we picked up from Okinawa when we got here. It was part of my old team 706 who work on it. They were to transfer after the first of the year for testing and training.

Well, to get back, they knew then they would either have to crash land or bail out. They decided that two of them would bail out & the rest said they would ride her out.

We got on the radio and talked to them from 0715 till just before landing, going over check lists and what to throw out and figuring out how much item would take the weight of the aircraft down. Radio, radar, life rafts, guns, ammo, and etc. At 1:30 they had the ship down to 89,000 lbs (unintelligible) and brought her in.

I don't think I seen so many men pray so hard that the would get out OK & that the ship wouldn't catch fire. When Cpt West turned “final” to land, he called the tower & said “I have two green lights, one red & a prayer.” There are green and red lights which tell if a (unintelligible) is safe to land or not.

The two who jumped made it out OK. Also Cpt. Borton's chute didn't open and he was lucky it was a chest pack & he pulled it open by hand. Said he died a thousand deaths when he pulled the handle & nothing happened. Said all he could think of was to take it apart with his hands, maybe it would open before he hit the ground. He was lucky & it opened with little trouble after he started tearing on it.

They had quite a choke up over it down at 'chute re-pack. They ground every one until there chute went through re-pack. They brought parachutes in from all the boys around here to get the job done.

We had been flying like mad with getting all these aircraft test-hopped since the crash. They tore all the gears apart to see if they could find anything on the rest of the ships. We had been flying “specials”, “Bull Ropes” regular & then had typhoon Patsy come in on us and then this crash. This outfit is all in a mess yet from it. There have been more brass around hre since the crash than I seen in all the time I have been in."

If anyone could fill in any details or make any suggestions about how I could find additional information, I would be most grateful.

I flew as a flight engineer on the KB-29P model in the 506 ARS at Bergstrom AFB, TX from 1955 to 1957. Good aircraft and very forgiving. The only acft I ever experienced a flat pitch runaway prop on. The only crew member I can recall is the A/C, Lt. George L. Carr. Good pilot, no supervisory skills-a driver not a leader.

My dad, Daniel Kelly, was working for Wright Aeronautical in Paterson NJ when the war started. he was subsequently set up as a Warrant Officer for security clearance and shipped to Wichita for the "Battle of Kansas" and the duration of the war. I grew up hearing all the stories about the numerous engine problems holding up production of reliable aircraft. He was always very proud of his involvement, and I still have all his notebooks and manuals.

I am happy to say that I flew 47 missions over North Korea and lived through it. 38 missions in 1951 with the 98th Bomb Gp 345th Bomb Sq as an 18 year old gunner and 9 more as a pilot with the 19th Bomb Group flying from Okinawa in 1953 as the war ended. The airplane was easy and fun to fly, the engines however were extremely unreliable. We had some scarely moments with engine failures. After being released from active duty, I spent the next 35 years flying with a major airline; during that time I had only two actual engine failures. Does anyone remember Captain Herbert A Charlsons crew from the 345th Bomb Sq. at Yokota Air base in late 1951. We flew 46-2106 "Miss Yankee Doodle" and 46-2253 "The Reluctant Dragon".

Probably the biggest single problem that had to be solved with the B-29 was with the engines. The early Wright R-3350's had a tendency to overheat and throw exhaust valves resulting in engine fires. Various fixes were incorporated including cuffing the props to provide increased cooling air flow, installation of air cooling baffles within the nacelles, reducing the cowl flap lengths and increasing oil flow to the valves. Over time the overheating problem was solved, allowing hundreds of flight hours on an engine before removal and replacement. As an indication of the growing confidence in the aircraft, during 1944 the 20th Air Force carried out a successful bombing/mining attack on the Palembang, Sumatra, oil refinery facilities staging from Ceylon. The total round trip distance for one of the airplanes was reported as no less than 4,030 miles.

Wm. Green, in his book "Famous Bombers of the Second World War" (Hanover House 1960), says the B-29's also flew 1,528 mining sorties around Japan in 1945. They dropped more than 12,000 mines by parachute, resulting in approximately 800,000 tons of Japanese shipping losses.

CORRECTION: To my Comment...

The crew crashed on September4,1951

This is kind of a follow-up on the comments by Carl Erickson's, that I too went through combat crew training, assigned as the tail gunner, at Randolph AFB in Texas and our B29 crew was sent to the 580th AR Wing (580th AR Squadron) at Mt Home AFB in Idaho. Unfortunately, in September,1953,the crew crashed while flying take-off and landings, with no surviors. Subsequently I was assigned to another crew and the unit was sent to Tripoli. Hey, we were the first of the 580th. There is an Association of the 580th, 581st and the 582 that is active now. If you are interest contact Carl H. Bernhardt, 424 Cedar Lane, Cheshire, Connecticut 06410. About the B29, I think that it was the smoothest flying airplane in the air, except for take-offs and landings....

This plane is a beast. The biggest propeller driven plane ever in warfare, it pulled the fire bombings, the A bombs Fat Man and Little Boy. Heck, its more closely related to our current B-52's than the rather crappy B-17's at the time. One of my favorite planes ever.

My dad(William R Hawk Jr.) was the navigator on B-29
44-87599 when it was picked up at Wichita and remained with its crew until he was discharged in 1945. I have pictures of it in it's original configuration and the crew taken in 1945 at Chatham Field,GA as well as a picture in the P2B-1S configuration after it was turned over to the Navy.I also have a copy of the complete history of the aircraft via the Individual Aircraft Record Card. I searched for over twenty years trying to determine it's fate but have not been successful.Theory is it ended its life at China Lake Any recent info on the aircraft would be appreciated. Such a beautiful bird!

I was station at China Lake Ca. 1962 to 1966. There were several B-29's parked in a grave yard for them at that time. I spent lots of time exploring the B-29's for parts. I was in impressed with the flight engineer ststion,he had his hands full.

we graduated as flight engineers at Hondo Texas july 45 after a year trainning. The dropping of the h bomb stopped all classes and 29 flights to saipan. the 17 and 24's were large but the 29 was the most advanced with computers and the engineers had to tell the pilot what settings to fly at so we had enough fuel to get back . the h bomb saved thousands of lives ====thanks Harry TRUMAN

My Boeing B-29`s Were all KB-29P air refueling, boom type Tankers. I was a scanner/Boom operator with the 91st ARS, the 100th ARS & the 508 th ARS.We refuled the RB-45 aircraft
of the 91 photo recon. the 509th RB50`s & the F-84G & F type
Models.Took part in "Fox Peter #1 deploying the F-84`s to
Korea..We were the real pioneers of the flying boom era.I
served from 1951 to March of 1955,..great airlpane, been over the North pole in her once or twice..They took the sighting blisters off the sides of the aircraft due to the weight & swing moment of the boom, Added one blister to the tail, & that was a beautiful view of the aircraft we were refueling..Proud to serve