Boeing Superfortress - Page 2

Kyt · 19-10-2007, 02:43 AM

The plane didn't have a good start:

Quote:

The Yawata Mission
On June 5 (1944), the Superforts made their first bombing attack, against the rail yards at Bangkok. Balky engines and bad weather conspired to cripple the mission. Only eighteen bombs hit the target. Not a good start.

Washington continued to pressure General Wolfe, CO of XX Bomber Command, to attack Japan itself by the middle of the month. On the night of June 14-15, ninety-two B-29's took off from staging bases in China, to strike at the Imperial Iron and Steel Works at Yawata on Kyushu - a vital target that turned out a quarter of Japan's rolled steel. The diminishing number of bombers at each stage of the mission illustrates the problems inherent in Operation Matterhorn:

* 92 bombers left India.
* 79 reached the staging bases in China.
* 75 took off from the bases.
* 68 left China, the others aborted after take-off.
* 47 reached the target at Yawata.
* 15 bombed visually; 32 bombed by radar due to the weather.
* One bomb hit the target!

http://www.acepilots.com/planes/b29.html

Antipodean Andy · 19-10-2007, 02:43 AM

Well, I can see your point. It was pressurised, the crew flew in shirt sleeves (as per Cheshire's book), etc etc. Heck of an advancement on bombers at the time but the Lanc was almost as capable in the weight carrying department from memory.

Perhaps the crews had it "easy" compared to earlier bombing campaigns. Having said that, I wouldn't want to do what they did - low level fire bombing at night, thermals would have flipped them over. There's still some excellent stories of survival and ther aircraft was fairly tough. I recall a pic of a '29 that had a runaway number three prop that refused to feather. It eventually broke the shaft bounced into number four, knocked that out, and then hit the fuse and made a nice hole. Aircraft made it back.

Antipodean Andy · 19-10-2007, 02:47 AM

The engines are the reason why Fifi, the Commemorative Air Force's B-29 in the US, is currently grounded. They've been donated/bought modified twin row jobbies but these have to be built up. Will mean more reliable and less trouble in the future. All comes down to money though as always.
http://www.cafb29b24.org/index.html

Another B-29, Doc, is slowly being restored to airwothiness in Kansas I think. Can you imagine seeing two of these together? Schawing, the ground would throb.
http://www.b-29doc.com/

She's not really the last B-29 that can be made airworthy as Kermit Weeks has yet to decide what to do with Fertile Myrtle but he's got plenty of other toys to play with.

Kyt · 19-10-2007, 02:52 AM

I know the aircraft was a great advancement (wasn't it the most expensive weapon of WW2 - cost more to develop that the A-bombs?), but still very dangerous to crew. Not just the "usual" dangers of being killed or being shot down, but B-29 crews didn't fair well if they were captured. Execution seems to have been the norm rather than the exception.

But still, the aircraft itself just looks like a tube with wings. No real charactor - no visible flaws, or noticeable idiosyncrasies. In other words, boring

Antipodean Andy · 19-10-2007, 02:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kyt

But still, the aircraft itself just looks like a tube with wings. No real charactor - no visible flaws, or noticeable idiosyncrasies. In other words, boring

I was going to say the same thing - that she doesn't have the character of earlier designs. However, I didn't put it in as I haven't heard her and I suspect that once I did, she'd be a living, breathing beastie!

Kyt · 19-10-2007, 03:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy in West Oz

However, I didn't put it in as I haven't heard her and I suspect that once I did, she'd be a living, breathing beastie!

Difficult to find on youtube - mainly rubbish vids of RC models:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7QlEN61UC-w

Kyt · 19-10-2007, 03:07 AM

But this is interesting - B-29 Dramatic Landings

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gqSJXXi8M4Q

and some nice footage but pain-in-the-ar..neck music:

B-29 Retirement Flight
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=r7OG8ta_Kw8

Antipodean Andy · 19-10-2007, 03:22 AM

Looks like that "Merrill's Retirement Flight" took off from the Boeing plant in Seattle, Washington. Great footage but you're right about the music even though I like Glenn Miller.

Kyt · 20-10-2007, 10:44 AM

Andy, don't know whether you've been back to TOCH but Ed West posted a link to a B-29 reading list. Some interesting titles:

http://home.att.net/~sallyann2/reading-room.html

Antipodean Andy · 21-10-2007, 05:49 AM

Thanks Kyt, will check it out. Haven't come across anymore than what I posted there but then, I've never looked too hard for them!