B29
 

Off topic ,but very interesting,
tomorrow ,sunday morning at 8 am in Whichita kansas the B29 Doc will make its first flight after restoration,the worlds second only flying B29.
there is a live link to the flight.http://www.b-29doc.com/firstflight
Lawrie

Re: B29
 

'DOC'

Did you know that more money was expended on the B-29 Project than on the Manhattan Project?


http://i1.wp.com/www.b-29doc.com/wp-...fit=1024%2C603

Re: B29
 

Had the same result though,
I sure wish I could be over to watch.
Lawrie

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I live right next to the old Wichita Airport (where the B29 is located). I'll watch for you Lawrie! I never personaly worked on Doc, but had a lot of friends that did.

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I sure hope they glue the vertical stab and rudder on that thing before they crank-up to go. I can't imagine why it's not visible in the pic. DD

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Yes, I just have to work out the time difference and get up to watch,
looks like about 11 pm tonight
Lawrie

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I actually have a piece of that airplane.

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Hi Everyone, TonyM, we're hangin' here. What bit of that historic machine do you have?

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Jeff, He probably has the vertical stab and rudder that DD refers to...;)
Ken

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KGS, Yeah, well, I've see the Vert Stab on that beast's sister, in the Air & Space in downtown decades ago, and that just plain don't fit in anybody's garage that I know of! Including a Mr. Hendrick who lives in NC, who pretty much has unlimited space. Easier to store a Space Shuttle than just a vert section of the tail on that one.

Anyone can see the photo has the tail-less, stealth version of the B-29ab! Sheesh!

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See the center door piece in the hanger door? That's what that center upper door is for.

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Equipped with "vertical stab and rudder""....

http://i0.wp.com/www.b-29doc.com/wp-...fit=1024%2C683
http://i2.wp.com/www.b-29doc.com/wp-...fit=1024%2C683

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The other B-29, "Fifi", will be in Oshkosh for the EAA show, the last week in July.

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Boy, I wish it were something dramatic and impressive like a propeller or an instrument, but it is not. When they began the resto, the sponsors were giving away pieces of Doc's discarded aluminum skin to donors and others. A friend from Kansas was involved some how and he sent me a piece of Doc as a gift. A piece of Doc's aluminum with the AAF serial number and the Boeing logo.

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In 1979 I flew a C-5 for display at Tennessee Aviation Days at Mc Ghee-Tyson, I believe. Wally Schirra came out from Base Ops and asked for a cockpit tour, which I was happy to provide. He said he once thought the B-29 was a huge aircraft and he laughed at how small it seemed under our wing.
Everything is relative.

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back in 1970/71 I was in the Navy in Charleston SC and lived near the air base there, we were right under the runway takeoff direction and that plane is HUGE and when it flew over everything in the house shook!!. Took my Dad to an air base open house and he just stood there and marveled about its size, at the time two C141's were parked under the wings of it

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Here's a valiant effort to recover another B-29. Made me cry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpR2S_gu5I8

Lonnie

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I missed seeing FiFi about 30 years ago when it was in town, but made sure to see her a couple of weeks ago when it was again in South Bend. I booked a flight in the navigator's seat, the same as my dad trained in. Very memorable.
I'm glad to see there will be another one of these very important airplanes in flight soon for many to enjoy. :)

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Well Lawrie, what do you think of that? Pretty impressive, I might say so myself.

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that is sooo good,well worth me staying up till 12.45 am.
Lawrie

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That first link for me doesn't work, due to server issues.
Try this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNckztvXU3I

live stream.

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Hi Everyone, Pretty cool to see that machine flying again.

http://www.b-29doc.com/docs-story/

Binx, that link you posted... Wow, I'm still trying to recover and all I did was watch a video!

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Binx, thanks for posting that B-29 story. What a heart-breaker!

Here's another B-29 story that I don't think a lot of people are aware of.

http://b-29s-over-korea.com/shortsto...ssianclone.htm

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That is one Bad Ass Bird !

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There are restorations and then there are restorations of heroic proportions. Wow!!!

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I know it's past time since it obviously flew, but any of the links posted don't seem to work showing the flight. I'd like to see it, even though it already happened. Any new links?

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The first one works, but the half-hour's worth of footage to watch runs from 1:28 through 1:58.

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Just search YouTube for anything like "B29 Doc's first flight" and you will find a bunch of videos. There are also some videos of the B29 FiFi at Oshkosh last year including one taken from the cockpit when it was inbound for Oshkosh.

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Takeoff...

http://www.warbirdsnews.com/wp-conte...ly-17-2016.jpg

Landing rollout.....

http://www.warbirdsnews.com/wp-conte...9.36.32-AM.jpg

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What an unbelievable effort - and such a beautiful plane! Way to go Doc!

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I haven't seen the video. Does anyone know whether or not they retracted the gear on this flight? DD

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First flight? I am betting they did not.

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For those that may be interested,,,A book,,,"Hunting Warbirds" by Carl Hoffman, covers the Kee Bird and other recoverys.

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They did not retract the gear as it was the first flight. They had trouble latching the bombbay doors so they had to taxi back and fix them. Flight was suppose to be thirty minutes , but due to taxi time they did not want to run engines more than planned so cut it short to one go around. FiFi crew flew it. The Doc friends did an incredible job taking years to restore this aircraft.

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Unfortunately, Greenamyer's half-assed approach to airmanship, as well as his "get-home-itis" and poor planning, destroyed forever that almost-pristine jewel by the name of Kee Bird. We should also not forget that his "lead guy" lost his life for this ill-planned debacle. DD

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I knew about the trouble with the bombay doors, but I sure do appreciate all the added details. DD

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I have two noobie questions....
First, I thought all such restorations had a tail number with a prefix X ?

Second, I thought protocol on engine starting sequence was to rotate port~starboard, rather than both on one wing then the other wing?

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Note to self: turn off APU after generators come online.

Lonnie

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Congratulations to the team that restored Doc... it's been a LONG haul since it was towed out of China Lake. Now we have two of them in the air!

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After they fixed the bomb bay doors, it took off again and that flight including taxi time was a half-hour's duration (1:28 to 1:58 on the long video). The landing gear remained down for that flight as well.