Warbird changed history
B-29 Superfortress visits, highlights US AirPower Tour
By Gary Harmon - Grand Junction Sentinel Newspaper, Wednesday, August 31, 2016
The most advanced warbird in the sky in 1944, the B-29 Superfortress, is now an endangered species of sorts.
The most advanced warbird in the sky in 1944, the B-29 Superfortress, is now an endangered species of sorts.
|
A Boeing B-29 Superfortress, the type that took to the air in World War II and the Korean War, is on display at West Star Aviation at Grand Junction Regional Airport. Its appearance, along with that of a C-45 Expeditor, is part of the Commemorative Air Force AirPower History Tour.
|
The public can see the aircraft today through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for children 11-17. Children age 10 and under are free. Ride reservations at http://www.AirPowerTour.org. See video at GJSentinel.com.
One of but a few of the remaining bombers — one of which put the final touches on World War II in the Pacific Theater — is in Grand Junction through the Labor Day weekend. It is available for public tours and seats for flights also are available.
“It was a very sophisticated aircraft,” said John Flynn, who served as the crew chief on Air Force One for presidents Johnson, Nixon and Ford, and on Wednesday was showing visitors through the B-29 parked outside West Star Aviation.
Fans of “Star Wars” will recognize the pattern of the forward gun turret on the B-29. It set the pattern for the side turrets on the Millennium Falcon from which gunners could take aim at speeding attackers. Don’t get cocky, George Lucas. The B-29’s guns were a bit more advanced than those on the Falcon. Each 50-caliber machine gun was aimed with the help of on-board computers that accounted for the speed of the B-29 and that of the approaching fighter planes, generally Japanese Zeroes.
A central fire-control officer sat in the middle of the aft section of the plane, his head in a clear bubble that afforded him a 360-degree view of the skies and the ability to direct guns, and gunners.
The computers gave the gunners a deadly advantage in fighting, one that forced the Japanese to take desperate measures — kamikaze attacks — to down them and the 10,000 pounds of bombs they carried, Flynn said.
B-29s could avoid the suicide attacks by climbing to 30,000 feet, well above the ceiling for the Japanese fighters, but they couldn’t deliver bombs accurately because of a then-unknown factor — the jet stream — which buffeted the bombs off target.
So, the pressurized fuselage of the B-29 made it possible to discover the jet stream, Flynn said. Bomb bays on the plane, dubbed FIFI, are the same as the ones on the Enola Gay, the B-29 that ferried Little Boy, the first atomic bomb dropped on Japan, over Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. The navigator’s desk in FIFI’s forward cabin is signed by “Dutch” Van Kirk, who directed the Enola Gay to its target on that flight.
In addition to bombing, the B-29 served as a command center for attacking aircraft, able to direct lower-flying fighters and other bombers from above.
The advanced radar on the B-29 also allowed it to lead the fighters and other craft back to base after sorties.
For all its sophistication, the B-29 was cramped, designed in such a way that only young men barely out of their teens could easily move about. The crew also had to crawl through a long tube to go between the fore and aft cabins.
The hulls were thin and corrosion-prone, as was the case with FIFI, which needed extensive retrofitting, said Max Rawlings, also a member of FIFI’s crew. “They weren’t made to last,” Rawlings said. “They weren’t intended to last 70 years.”
The B-29 is accompanied by a C-45 Expeditor, which was used to ferry passengers and bombs. Both planes are part of the Air Power Tour of the Commemorative Air Force.
“It was a very sophisticated aircraft,” said John Flynn, who served as the crew chief on Air Force One for presidents Johnson, Nixon and Ford, and on Wednesday was showing visitors through the B-29 parked outside West Star Aviation.
Fans of “Star Wars” will recognize the pattern of the forward gun turret on the B-29. It set the pattern for the side turrets on the Millennium Falcon from which gunners could take aim at speeding attackers. Don’t get cocky, George Lucas. The B-29’s guns were a bit more advanced than those on the Falcon. Each 50-caliber machine gun was aimed with the help of on-board computers that accounted for the speed of the B-29 and that of the approaching fighter planes, generally Japanese Zeroes.
A central fire-control officer sat in the middle of the aft section of the plane, his head in a clear bubble that afforded him a 360-degree view of the skies and the ability to direct guns, and gunners.
The computers gave the gunners a deadly advantage in fighting, one that forced the Japanese to take desperate measures — kamikaze attacks — to down them and the 10,000 pounds of bombs they carried, Flynn said.
B-29s could avoid the suicide attacks by climbing to 30,000 feet, well above the ceiling for the Japanese fighters, but they couldn’t deliver bombs accurately because of a then-unknown factor — the jet stream — which buffeted the bombs off target.
So, the pressurized fuselage of the B-29 made it possible to discover the jet stream, Flynn said. Bomb bays on the plane, dubbed FIFI, are the same as the ones on the Enola Gay, the B-29 that ferried Little Boy, the first atomic bomb dropped on Japan, over Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. The navigator’s desk in FIFI’s forward cabin is signed by “Dutch” Van Kirk, who directed the Enola Gay to its target on that flight.
In addition to bombing, the B-29 served as a command center for attacking aircraft, able to direct lower-flying fighters and other bombers from above.
The advanced radar on the B-29 also allowed it to lead the fighters and other craft back to base after sorties.
For all its sophistication, the B-29 was cramped, designed in such a way that only young men barely out of their teens could easily move about. The crew also had to crawl through a long tube to go between the fore and aft cabins.
The hulls were thin and corrosion-prone, as was the case with FIFI, which needed extensive retrofitting, said Max Rawlings, also a member of FIFI’s crew. “They weren’t made to last,” Rawlings said. “They weren’t intended to last 70 years.”
The B-29 is accompanied by a C-45 Expeditor, which was used to ferry passengers and bombs. Both planes are part of the Air Power Tour of the Commemorative Air Force.
Click the clink below to watch the video about the “FiFi” B-29 SuperFortress