Long video (was live)
http://www.b-29doc.com/firstflight/
Highlights:
http://www.b-29doc.com/2016/07/18/video-first-flight-success/
There are now two flying B-29s (the other being “FIFI” which I have seen at Oshkosh)
Brian
Funny this should come up… just Sunday my family and I were out for a walk, and a Lancaster bomber flew overhead. I was mesmerized. I knew it existed, but it’s a rare thing.
Somehow I imagined the pilots being higher and farther back in the plane. They were actually flanking where I would have thought the bombardier’s position was. I guess I was thinking it would be laid out on the interior more like the B17.
I would have thought that multi-engine planes like this have engines on one wing that turn opposite the ones on the other wing, to counteract torque. But all 4 props spin in the same direction.
The plane is wide enough (long enough wingspan) that torque is easily countered with aileron trim. The logistical complexities of maintaining stocks of “left turning” and “right turning” engines is just not worth it when it’s basically a non-issue.
The bombardier is not in that much different of a spot relative to the pilots as compared to the B-17. It feels different because the B-17 cockpit is so cramped that it’s hard to see the bombardier position, while the B-29 is a wide open space.
Resurrecting this thread because Doc is coming to California next month.
Warbird News — B-29 Doc Announces Full California Tour Schedule
b29doc.com — California Tour Confirmed: B-29 Doc to Make Four Stops in the Golden State
I’m going. I already have our tickets (wife and I are going). Can’t wait. I haven’t seen either Doc or FIFI before. Doc has that shiny mirror-like finish so I’m hoping to get a picture of the nose with us in the reflection. FIFI’s finish is dull gray and non-reflective. There must be official names of those finishes and paint.
imgur, 2 pics — B-29 Nose Art, Doc and FIFI
To find this thread I searched for all threads with B-29 in the title. I thought I’d share the search results here. There are only 10 threads, including this one.
(Apr 2008) R/C B-29 with Bell X-1 — post #1 has a great video, including inverted B-29 flyby. Very cool. Thanks to Johnny L.A..
(Apr 2007) Anime depictions of a B-29 bomber?
(Jun 2006) Making a B-29 go faster
(Nov 2005) Has a B-29 or B-52 ever shot down enemy fighters?
(Mar 2005) Largest-yield nuke a B-29 could have delivered, safely?
(Dec 2004) Did The Russians COPY the B-29 Bomber?
(Jul 2004) B-29 bomber question
(Jan 2003) B-29 (maybe) raid over Scottsdale
(Jan 2003) B-29 question
That type of airplane is surprisingly loud. I was hiking in the Big Thicket awhile ago, surrounded by brush, pines, and swamp (it’s a great place to see carnivorous plants like pitchers, sundews, etc…), and suddenly the air was filled with this omnipresent droning. Loud enough it was tough to localize, and we didn’t end up seeing the CFA’s B-17, flying from the Houston area to somewhere else.
I can’t imagine what hundreds of them, taking off and flying over East Anglia, must have sounded like.
I can only imagine. I’ve never seen a Lancaster in flight.
I’ve had a V-22 Osprey tiltrotor fly over my house in helicopter mode. Very loud, and it shook my house.
I was standing about 50’ away from a 1929 Ford Tri-motor (now owned by Evergreen Aviation in McMinnville, Oregon) when they cranked it up. :eek: It made my chest vibrate like a kettle drum. :eek:
I worked with an elderly physician who was a navigator on the B-29, including the Dresden bombings. He was a member of the “Lucky Bastards” club, surviving over 35 missions.
The stories he told of his days on the B-29 were amazing.
Probably a B-17 if he bombed Dresden, as the B-29s were limited to the Pacific and bombing Japan.
Or a B-24, the world’s most produced bomber.
:smack:
You’re right, it was B-17. How humiligrating.
He could have flown both; there were some officers who did. AFAIK enlisted men were pretty much exempt from more combat once they’d done their 25(or later 35) missions though.
And quite a few returning B-17 crewmen ended up as instructors for B-29 crews. That’s what my grandfather did- he flew his 25 missions between September 1943 and the very end of December 1943, and then spent 1944 and 1945 as a gunnery instructor for B-29 crews.
He said he liked the B-29 a lot more than the B-17 because it was pressurized and heated, which was a massive improvement on the oxygen masks and heated suits of the B-17.