Can anyone tell me how many B-29’s were built? Include all variants and conversions. If not give me a ballpark figure. Thanks.
Hi Jim,
Check out this website, which may contain the info you requested…
http://www.40th-bomb-wing.com/b-29.html
Take care,
Frank
A book I have states 2,513 B-29 Superfortresses - all variants - were built by Boeing in Wichita, Kansas (1,620), Bell Aircraft in Marietta, Georgia (357) and Glen L. Martin in Omaha, Nebraska (536).
Variants produced include: B-29A, B-29B, F-13A and RB-29 (reconnaissance), SB-29A Superdumbo, P2B-1S (launch aircraft for Bell X-1, etc) and Atomic Bomb delivery aircraft.
Here’s what the A. F. Museum has to say about it.
jimz66[:)]
check this link out (good overall site as well…)
http://users.belgacom.net/aircraft1/avion1/147.html#1200
also, can anyone tell me exactly how those “remote control” turrets worked in this aircraft?? never could figure that one out!
regards,
nick
The 2513 figure is for the B-29 only.
The Navy owned plant at Renton built 1119 B-29A’s while The Bell Atlanta plant built an additional 311 B-29B’s. For 3943 combat B-29s… add the 14 YB-29’s and 3 XB-29’s you get a grand total of 3960 B-29’s of all variants.
The F-13’s, Navy Versions, Atom Bombers, KB-29’s, Washingtons and all other variants were simply conversions from any of the B-29’s mentioned above.
Some notes. There is a huge misconception that the B-29A had a foot longer wingspan than a standard B-29. This is NOT true. They do have a different wing structure but the span is the same. FiFi is a B-29A and has a 141’ 3" span just like all the rest.
The B-29B was unarmed except for the tail turret. This tail turret also contained a gun laying radar. The B version also had a different bombing radar, the AN/APQ-7 Eagle, which had a much higher resolution than the AN/APQ-13 or 13A used on other variants. Most B’s went to the 315 Bomb Wing and were used for night incindiary raids. These were ordered at random from the standard B-29 run being produced at Bell Atlanta.
The Atom Bombers were selected individually by Paul Tibbets from the Martin Omaha plant and were built without turrets or most of their armor.
Conversions are numerous as they were adapted to many different roles after Korea and WWII. Some include jet testbeds, different refuelling versions, EB-29 parasite launch aircraft, the P2B-1S for the Navy, the Washington for the RAF, the launch aircraft for the X-1, Tarzon bombers of Korea, XB-44/B-29D conversion that led to the B-50… plus Im sure there are plenty of others I have left out!!
Dave what about the ones that were converted into B-50’s? You are telling me the Navy had B-29’s known as F-13’s? How were they painted? Are there any photo references? What would I have to do the Monogram B-29 to make an F-13? Thanks.
The remote gunnery system was made by General Electric. It beat out bids by Sperry for a hydraulic version and beat out a manned system.
Ill copy and paste this next part as its pretty lengthy:
“Reflector gunsights were placed at each of the four gunner’s sighting positions. Each gunsight was wired into the electrical system, and it sent electrical commands to direct and fire the guns. In order to direct the guns, the gunner operated the sight by grasping two round knobs on either side of the sight. The sight swiveled horizontally at the base and the upper section rotated in elevation by a forward and backward twisting of the wrists. The sighting mechanism included an incandescent light source that projected a pattern of dots upward through a lens from inside the sight. This pattern was focussed onto a piece of clear glass as a circle of bright dots with one dot at the center. By twisting the right-hand sight knob back and forth, the gunner could make the circle of dots shrink or expand. There was a dial on the back of the sight where the wingspan of the attacking aircraft could be set. With the computer switched on, a target could be tracked smoothly. Gyroscopes scanned the enemy plane’s wingtips, and those electrical signals were sent to the turret, allowing it to lead the target and to elevate the guns to compensate for range. The right hand knob had a “dead-man” switch which consisted of a metal flap which was spring-loaded to hold it out at a 30 degree angle. It had to be held down by the palm of the hand or else the turret would not activate.”
Each turret could be controlled by whoever the central fire control gunner thought would be better suited to fire. The side gunners usually controlled the two lower turrets while the CFC got the upper aft turret and the bombardier got the upper forward turret. The tail gunner got the tail gun and if the lower aft turret could get to it he could control it as well. It was possible to train all four main body turrets onto a target if conditions were right, this would put 10 .50 brownings on a target. Also depending on the approaching target the side gunners could control the tail turret. Here again you’ll find some texts saying the tail turret wasnt computer controlled and that he couldnt control any other turret except his own. Some texts will also say that a gunner couldnt control more than 2 turrets. Those authors havent seen the original literature and processes of the system.
Heres a good site showing the operation of the sights with some original texts and manuals concerning the operation of the GE system. http://www.rootsweb.com/~ny330bg/tail%20gunner.htm
This page shows the CFC gunner with original texts concerning operation of all turrets by one gunner. http://www.rootsweb.com/~ny330bg/cfc.htm
No, the Navy versions (there were just 4) were the P2B-1S’s. One of these was converted to be “Fyrtle Myrtle” launching the Douglas Skyrocket which was first to go Mach 2. These were natural metal but I think a couple had black bellies (Fyrtle Myrtle was black bellied).
The F-13’s were photo recon versions built in WWII. Before the USAAF was made into its own branch the letter F stood for Foto! After they became a separate branch they were called RB-29’s. There were 118 F-13’s converted from other variants and had three K-17B, two K-22 and one K-18 cameras with mounts for others. These were mounted in the sides on the aft of the fuselage and sighted by a driftmeter by a “Photo-Navigator” in the bombardiers position. The first B-29 over Tokyo was an F-13 named Tokyo Rose. It cruised above flak for over an hour taking pictures of the capitol!
The ones that were “converted” to B-50s were the XB-44/B-29D prototypes. This was a single B-29A that was used by Pratt & Whitney to mount their R-4360 28 cyl radial on. It was stripped of turrets and remained in the US but still carried a tail gunner with tail guns! The B-50 of course was sort of a whole new animal, with the new engines a different lighter wing structure, nose wheel steering, boosted rudder, taller rudder and plenty of other differences.
To clarify the gunners There were five locations. Nose , Right blister,left blister,cfc top,and tail. There were Primary control. The Bombadier (nose) controlled the Upper forward turret and lower forward turret. The cfc top blister contolled the upper aft turret,the left and right blister shared the lower aft turret and the tail gunner had the tail turret Secondary control during the bomb run the bombadier released control of his turrets. The upper foward then fell into control of the cfc sights. The lower forward turre t was was shared by the right and left blisters The tail turrets remained in control by tail gunner. I hope everybody is not totally confused. Glad to get the great web sites
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