At around 2:30 this afternoon, while doing some painting on my back yard shed, I heard what sounded like a very large aircraft heading west towards the Chester County Airport. Usually it is only Lear jets or choppers. I came around the shed and out from under the trees and there was a B-29 directly overhead.[:O] She had a yellow rudder and a yellow band on each wing starting on the leading edge of the wings outboard of the engines and angled towards the wingtips. The sun was very bright so I couldn’t tell if she was O.D. or Dark Grey. She was loosing altitude and I saw her gear coming down so I guess she was headed for C.C. Airport as it is the only one in that general direction in this area.There are a few WWII planes kept there. If she was headed for Phila. Intl., she would have been travelling southeast. I knew I couldn’t get to my camera in time.[BH] Another fellow on the forum said it was a good idea to keep your camera available at all times just in case. Sorry I didn’t follow his advise. By any chance, does anyone recognize her by my inexperienced description[?] Tried to find out if there was a show in the area but have had no luck. I am going to be very upset if there is.[:(]
I think you were seeing a B-17. There are only two B-29s in the US and both are currently nonflyable but being restored. It was probably heading to Oshkosh for AirVenture.
I believe what you saw was the B-17 Liberty Belle returning from it’s tour of England. You can read all about it here:http://www.libertyfoundation.org/
The entire flight was supposed to be tracked on line, but nothing has been updated since July 4th. I was afraid something bad happened. I am glad to hear she made it home safe. I am sure my Dad loaded bombs on the original Liberty Belle, as they both served with the 390th BG, 570 sqd. I was hoping to see her at Oshkosh again this year, but the schedule shows she will be out east during that time.
Hawkeye,Cardshark thanks for the correction. I really don’t know planes that well. I looked up and saw that plane and started yelling for my wife to come out and look. I knew it was a WWII bomber and guessed B-29. Bad guess, fantastic sight though. As someone once said “Right church, wrong pew”. I better start studying up. I know P-51’s and P-40’s and some others but I don’t know all the variants of each. I’ll keep reading.
bigfoot01, glad my mistake gave you some info on her return home.
FiFi last I heard was still being refitted with new engines. The type she had are no longer available so they had to upgrade to a newer version of that engine. The other B-29 is named “DOC” and is being restored by employees and volunteers at the original Boeing factory. Here is the web-site : http://b-29doc.com/
Haven’t heard about Doc, but that’s way cool. As far as I know, Fifi is still undergoing her refit. Since it’s being paid for by the gentleman that sponsors the Cavanaugh Flight Museum, she and the B-24 will be moving to Addison (suburb of north Dallas), which means that she’ll be less than a mile from where I work.[party] It’ll be great to see the old girl in the air again (especially if it’s on the way in to work).
As stated above, there are NO B-29s currently airworthy. Both FIFI and DOC are supposed to be airworthy fairly soon, but are not at the moment. Kermit Weeks has most of a B-29 that could be made airworthy, but I don’t think anyone is working on that airframe at this time. Then there is the tragedy of KEE BIRD, the B-29 that Darryl Greenemeyer and associates made airworthy on the Greenland ice about 10 or 12 years ago and then was destroyed in an on board APU fire during take off.
I’ll see if I can pictures of any yellow tail bombers that might be at Oshkosh. Yesterday we were down there and watched a P-51 and a SeaFury arrive…it should be really hopping there today. The North Forty was about 1/2 full already.
I believe FiFi will be spending some time on display at a Museum as part of a deal to pay for her new engines. DOC last I heard was waiting for the installation of her engines as well, the project was stalled for lack of capital (cash) and was pushed outside the hanger where she was being restored to make room for a paying customer. I included links to each ones homepage.
These are the only three pics I have of FiFi on my Photobucket account for the time being. These were taken October of 2007 while the CAF folks were doing some engine work.
Since I live in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, I’ll be sure to get better pics when FiFi is there, & happen to be back in the US at the time.
I remember seeing the NOVA special on the Kee Bird many years ago. That was before I knew what a B-29 WAS. The word tradgety is apt. Not only was an extreme amount of hard work lost to the ice, but one guy actually died because of it. Saddest part is that the fire occurred on a frozen lake, so when the lake thawed, all the wreckage sank into it.
The ONLY “silver lining” (and I use the term loosely) to this story is that one of the main guys who did the restoration still holds salvage rights to the wreckage, and everything forward of the fire (basically the wings and forward fuselage) is supposedly in decent condition. I’ve only seen this info on ONE site, however, and any restoration now would probably be financially unfeasable.
Nothin’ quite like a “heavy” roaring back from the past! Those motors command respect from eardrums!
I’ve got a few parts of “Doc” right here on my computer monitor stand. I got them for donating $10 to the restoration effort. Some of the crew were at the National Air Racing Championships in Reno Nevada. I told them I’d be back next year with more cash so I can build my own Superfortress! HAAA!
The folks at the concession were all too aware of the Kee Bird disaster and they assured me that efforts would be redoubled to avoid a repeat of such a thing.
They were some very fine and knowledgeable folks and I was quite impressed with their efforts.
With so many B-29s needing engines it’s time for a private venture to be created to rebuild, maintain and service the darned things! Get some investors together!
There are at least fourty-three surviving B-29s, with roughly two dozen that could be considered as ‘complete’… or relatively so. The rest are either partial airframes or of unknown status.
Check out the B-29 entries in the Warbird Registry…
As mentioned already, there are two ships which could be airworthy in a relatively short period of time, given the needed resources. A third, named ‘It’s Hawg Wild’, was made airworthy and flown to England in 1980… but I don’t know if it’s flown since. Here’s a couple shots of its arrival at Duxford in March of 1980:
Photo credits: unknown
I seem to recall reading about another B-29 that was airworthy but rarely flown… this would have been in the 1980s and/or 90s. Anyone recall reading about this, maybe in some of the warbird rags like Air Classics or Warbirds Int.? Or am I just having hopeful hallucinations? LOL
Anyway, when ‘FiFi’ flies again, and ‘Doc’ finally gets into the air, first news will probably be seen at WIX, in the ‘WIX Hangar’.
