Listen on the Radio the day that B-29 FiFi was flown

[Glen]

Greetings
I was going through some of My grandfathers things the other day and came across a Radio that I remember as a Child listening to.
The Date was in 1971 I was only 9 years old . I had just come in the House and everybody was listening to the Radio As their was play by play of the CAF B-29 being started and Flown Non Stop from Cal to Texas ! I Remember as they were talking about as the first Engine cough to life (My two uncles that had served in the Airforce in the early 50's ) how in comparison to the B-36 it was very quite ! I had no idea at the time what they were talking about but come to cherrish that moment in time as the Keep em Flying moment was in it early stage.
Dose any body else remember this happening ?

Glen

[David_Aiken]

Howdy Glen,
I was not there...yet when I made friends with the late Bruno Genarlsky, I learned about his effort to get the plane in the air. Bruno told me they picked the particular airframe...cleared out the rattlesnakes, selected four engines from the group of B-29s...and trucked some extra engines to Harlingen. They fueled the plane and the US military folk thought they were going to a nearby military base...where the CAF guys thought the plane would be confiscated. Thus they flew the plane straight to Harlingen... and Bruno was proud that the engines had no 'squawks' for the trip.

In WWII, Bruno was flight chief for "C" flight, 431st FS...McGuire's flight. The 431st FS was led by Major Frank Nichols who was my Wing Commander in 1968-1970. Thus, Bruno and I had lots to speak about.

Cheers,
David Aiken

[b29flteng]

My good friend Randy Sohn was the pilot on the flight, after landing in Harlingen, a newsman asked him how much time he had flying B-29s, he looked at his watch and said "About six hours and thirtyfive minutes"! Check out the CAF B-29/B-24 web site as it has a history of the first flight out of China Lake NAS.