Yeah, I was actually looking forward to being a part of that process, but it was personal for him because he flew in them during the war. He did manage though to restore two P-51 Mustangs, one in which he still has but due to his age he no longer flies. The other he donated to the Evergreen Aviation Museum where the “Spruce Goose” is displayed. His other project which was his baby and he would often travel to shows with is the Lockheed Junior Electra 12. I got to fly that one and got my instruments rating and my duel engine in. Very awesome plane with a smooth vibe! Same plane Amelia Earhart flew in.
Interesting fact about the B-29 I learned when going through the process with my Uncle, was when it was first introduced to the airmen, they didn’t know how to handle them as many accidents occured during training exercises. There were a group of women Pilots called the “Wasps” out of Sweetwater Texas that became adept at flying them who were eventually asked to train the pilots and were successful in doing so that got those birds operating right.
Yep, the Wasp’s primarily were doing the testing and delivery, they were barred from flying in the war zones otherwise.
We have to remember that today it takes about 30-35 years from concept to fielding, during WWII we had it down to under three years in some cases and when that much of your testing ends up being done in combat you’re going to crash and blow a lot of them up.
If we’d had the B29’s ready to go in 1940 it very well could have saved tens of thousands of lives for pilots and crews and might have shortened the wary by as much as a year.
Remember the B-17 only had a 4,000lbs payload, the British Lancaster 14,000 for a normal load and up to 22,000 max.
The B-24, 13,000.
B-29, 14,000 for a normal bomb load but up to 25,000lbs when specially configured and it could fly above all German Flak and both high and fast enough to evade almost all of the German fighters/interceptors except for the “wonder weapons” fielded at the end of the war in numbers not large enough to make a difference in the outcome.
It was so far ahead the Russians stole the plans for it and built their own variant which I think is still flying today.
Well, I think preserving the history of the greatest nation “in” recorded history, is more important than our taxes supporting illegal sub humans, who injure & kill American citizens every fucking day. I’d be fine with my taxes helping to rebuild these wonderful aircraft.
Now, this is the cats ass. I have no idea how many are still airworthy; but what a warplane. https://youtu.be/IYvsjGroa78?t=6 California to New York, and back to California, in 4 hours. Shazam.
https://youtu.be/qx-uZZVc0dE?t=15 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 60 years old ( only in America ); and imagine what she could do if todays modern engineering was incorporated into her technology.
The A-26 which was the same plane configured as a heavy fighter bomber and direct ground support aircraft was amazing as well. Some of the toughest support missions of the war were carried out by A-26 pilots.
It was so good in the role it survived to fight on in Korea and Vietnam as well and several are still flying fire fighter missions.
That is the plane flown in movie “Always”.
the B-25’s configured as gunships with up to 14 M2 50’s and a 40mm or 75mm cannon in the nose were awesome as well.
The A-26 was so successful that it was the model they worked around in the creation of the A-10.
I believe two, and 1 went down. Still, what engineering. Capitalism. We got money. Build this amazing aircraft. These wonderful planes are labors of love.
Interesting thing about Boeing and telling of their blunders over the years. The DC-3 Gooney Bird as it was referred to, manufactured by McDonnell Douglas, manufactured a similar plane during a time when they were bidding on the contract lost out to the DC-3 that would go on to being the most successful reliable plane in aviation history! I am sure Boeing would love to have a do over on that one!
