Last flying B-29 Super Fortress

kshapero

kshapero

South Florida Man
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Mar 27, 2006
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The Bombs!!

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Second Pilot's seat

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Radio Engineer

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Is there really only one left? That's too bad if so -- and maybe I saw this one over Hartford CT maybe 15 years ago, flying maybe 500 feet up. Quite a sight. Pratt & Whitney engines and Hamilton Standard propellers, both made near Hartford.

Did you go for a ride in it?
 
The rides were like $600 out of my league. BTW my dad was a navigator on 18 missions in WWII, in one these giant sardine cans.
 
Where is that B-29 based- S. florida? Out here in Mesa, AZ, we have a B-24 and B-25, think they are a lot cheaper ($300+/-) :)

Wonderful pictures!
 
KoNickon said:
Is there really only one left? That's too bad if so -- and maybe I saw this one over Hartford CT maybe 15 years ago, flying maybe 500 feet up. Quite a sight. Pratt & Whitney engines and Hamilton Standard propellers, both made near Hartford.

Did you go for a ride in it?
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Last airworthy example, bear in mind there are some static examples (Enola Gay comes immediately to mind!).

There could have been another one, but someone decided it would be OK to taxi the Kee Bird with a loose gas can rattling around and she went up in flames. Legend...

Awesome images by the way. So jealous. Would love to have a look over Fifi some day.
Regards
Brett
 
The Museum of Flight in Seattle has a recently-restored B-29 on the premises, but I don't believe it's airworthy. It's currently shrink-wrapped to protect it from the elements--sort of a cross between Christo and Curtis LeMay.
 
When I was a kid, my family used to live near an Air Force base in the southwest, and in the boneyard there used to sit a nearly complete B-29. A few kids used to sneak into the boneyard and play in the old planes (the ones which were not sealed up). The B-29 was a favorite due to it's size. I have never flown a plane, except in my imagination, but I have sat in the pilots seat of a B-29, which was close enough for a 10 year old.

The air police used to patrol the boneyard a couple of times a day, and I was scared to death of their big German shepherd.
 
I was just at the Boeing Museum of Flight about a month ago and there was one sitting outside, completely wrapped in white plastic, props and all. I figured they are protecting it from the weather until it can be restored for a static display.
 
Frontman said:
When I was a kid, my family used to live near an Air Force base in the southwest, and in the boneyard there used to sit a nearly complete B-29. A few kids used to sneak into the boneyard and play in the old planes (the ones which were not sealed up). The B-29 was a favorite due to it's size. I have never flown a plane, except in my imagination, but I have sat in the pilots seat of a B-29, which was close enough for a 10 year old.

The air police used to patrol the boneyard a couple of times a day, and I was scared to death of their big German shepherd.
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The last place I worked there was an old architect who as a kid of about 17, towards the end of WWII, had worked on the gun control computers on B-29s. Can you imagine?
 
JSU said:
The documentary of the recovery of the Kee Bird brought me to tears the first time I saw it. Not for the aircraft but the men who gave their all to save it, and lost, some who lost all.
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Don't get me wrong; I have a lot of sympathy for the family of Rick Krieg (correct spelling?) and those who laboured under such horrendous conditions; but the decision to move the aircraft with the APU being supplied from a loose can sloshing fuel through the interior of the aeroplane, which is essentially what caused the fire, was a very bad one. The book about the project is very kind to all involved; perhaps too kind to some.
Regards
Brett
 
It is good to know that there is still one airworthy B-29. I would really love to see her flying. Thanks for sharing those photos.

Bob
 
Thank you for posting this. My uncle Bill (Col. William Reinman, USAAF (retired)) is a former test pilot, and he quite literally "wrote the book" (flight manual) on the B-29.
 
I shot two rolls of 220, and some 35mm when it was in Columbus, OH a long time ago. Lots of close details, like your bomb bay shot, and of course, inside the cockpit. It actualy made it to town twice while I lived there, but the second time I didn't go inside, as there was a larger crowd, and I didn't want to keep someone else from the pleasure. But there were plenty of other planes to see that time, so the exterior shots were all I needed. And the Kee Bird documentary was heart rending, in all aspects. I was in total shock the first time I watched the ending. And if I had the money, $600 dollars is not too much for a ride like that.

PF
 
I got to see Fifi up close in Greensboro NC a few years ago and came back the next day to watch her fire up those engines and fly away. Later I got a ride in a B 17 (Liberty Belle) and it was well worth the $400.

More important, when these planes visit so do the veterans. Typically a thin old man on his daughters arm with a 10,000 yard stare. These vets are getting fewer and fewer and I have been blessed to know a few. God Bless them. Joe
 
Zonan said:
Where is that B-29 based- S. florida? Out here in Mesa, AZ, we have a B-24 and B-25, think they are a lot cheaper ($300+/-) :)
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I'm looking at that website right now - there are two or three things I have to do now, after seeing the possibility. The 20 minute flight in a biplane looks incredible.
 
Dad flew combat and PoW camp missions in the B-29 out of Guam and Saipan. FiFi is the last in the air, but there are about 15-20 B-29s around the world still in static display. It was a very difficult plane to keep in the air in it's day, and it's no better now. $600 is well worth the experience.

Dad always said he survived the war because he was in a B-29; he thought the B-17s in the 8th AF (Britain) had far greater casualties. Several of his friends didn't come back from the 8th and one close one who did was not the same after. But, a couple of years ago I looked up Dad's unit's casualty rate during his combat service and it was 50%, equal to the worst unit in the 8th. Same odds, you just died in differently.

-Charlie
 
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