4/28/2023 0 Comments B29 cockpitDuring January 1940 the AAC issued a specification for a very heavy bomber with these requirements: 400 mph speed, high altitude capability with pressurized crew compartment, 5,000+ mile range with bomb load, defensive armament, and tricycle landing gear. In the late 1930s, the Army Air Corps (AAC) began a search for a new high performance bomber that would stretch the state of the art of airplane design. Requirements for a High Performance Bomber Cabin pressurization, heating, and air conditioning added to the crew’s comfort. B-29 crewmen enjoyed (if that’s correct in a combat setting) a relatively spacious working environment with standup room for all, except for the tail gunner, especially when compared to its older sibling, the cramped B-17 Flying Fortress. To the observer aboard the B-29, it shouts "American" in every direction, for the impression is of substantial size, great strength, overflowing technology, and assurance that this warplane can take on any foe and win. It compared favorably with the only operational turbojet bomber, Germany’s impressive Arado Ar 234 Blitz (Lightning) in speed at altitude, and was markedly superior in service ceiling (the highest an airplane can climb while still flying horizontally) and ferry range (the farthest distance a fully equiped airplane without payload can fly). The Superfortress had no peer during the war among propeller-driven bombers. Known as the only aircraft to drop atomic bombs in war, the B-29 contributed a major share to the Allied victory over Japan with its firebomb attacks and mine laying missions in the waters surrounding the home islands. B-29s fought in the Pacific theater, flying mostly from small islands with the world’s largest airbases, over vast stretches of ocean to enemy targets that could be more than 2,000 miles distant. It successfully performed several roles during 15 months of combat, including bomber, minelayer, photoreconnaissance, search and rescue, and electronic warfare. The B-29 was born near the war's midpoint, flying on September 21, 1942, built and employed in large numbers during the conflict. Among them, 633 Squadron (1964) and The Dam Busters (1955) film about one of the Royal Air Force’s most famous raid in WWII against the Mohne, Eder and Sorpe dams, pivotal to Hitler’s industrial heartland in the Ruhr Valley, inspired the famous Death Star attack featured in “A New Hope.Famed for its World War II exploits, Boeing's Superfortress was conceived before the war. Indeed, you most probably remember that gun turrets also equip George Lucas’s spacecraft and are used by both Han Solo and Luke Skywalker to fight Imperial TIE fighters as the Millennium Falcon escapes Death Star in Episode IV.Īnyway, the connections between WWII aircraft and Star Wars go well beyond the Millennium Falcon’s cockpit or manned gun turrets: it’s not a secret George Lucas draw inspiration from WWII newsreel and movies. The Superfortress featured pressurized cabin with the peculiar windows layout, tricycle dual wheeled landing gears, and a quite-advanced-for-the-time, remote, electronic fire-control system that controlled four machine gun turrets that complemented a manned, semi-automatic, rear gun turret. The last B-29 was retired from active service in September 1960. The B-29 saw military service again in Korea between 19, battling new adversaries: jet fighters and electronic weapons. As already explained here when we first published a quite unique walkaround video of the last flying Superfortress, the Boeing B-29 was a four-engine heavy bomber operational during WWII designed for high-altitude strategic bomber role that become particularly famous for carrying out the devastating atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.Īfter the war, the advanced B-29s carried out several tasks including in-flight refueling, antisubmarine patrol, weather reconnaissance and rescue duty.
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