B-29A Superfortress "It's Hawg Wild" ~ In close up .....

[bomberflight]

This photo essay comes from the American Air Museum at Duxford and features the B-29 housed inside.
It follows a request on another thread here on WIX for more pix of this specific airplane.

Space is at a premium inside the building and that makes getting a definitive pic rather tricky ......







So let's pretend this is my one and only visit and I can't leave empty handed ..... and see what I came up with







Thank goodness for the mono-pod and the point and shoot Canon G12. This combination allows me to shoot
from a camera height of approx 12 -15 feet and the swivel on the viewfinder screen means I can see what I'm doing.
You can see the camera dead center of this pic .....



The next view was taken from the other side.



Talking of "the other side" .... that requires shooting directly toward the large glass wall. So either the aircraft is in dark shadow
or the background is blown away in the exposure. Maybe I need to try again on a cloudy day when the lighting is a little less extreme.





I'm really pleased I tried to photograph the B-29 today ~ I'd always considered it too difficult because of the lighting conditions

Thanks to WIX ~ I surprised myself ! I hope you guys like some of them too

[Pat Carry]

Very nice!!!!!!!!!!!!

[APG85]

Fantastic pictures! The B-29 is my favorite airframe and 'It's Hawg Wild" is one of the best of the survivors!!!
Is the museum ever open at night for night photography?

[bomberflight]

APG85 ~ Yes they have done a couple of night shoots in the past and I hope I can be there when they do the next one

[Edward Sheetmetalhands]

Very nice photos... I especially like the hasty field patch around the blister.

Could you please post these in the Warbird Registry forum so the photos can be incorporated into the registry? Link is here.... viewforum.php?f=44

[bomberflight]

I thought I better get some snaps of the nose art before submitting the pix to the Warbird Registry .....





I've just noticed that there's a cockpit window open ..... switching to "polecam"



and back down again .....

[maxum96]

If I've got my facts right, WIX's own Taigh Ramey flew on Hawg Wild on part of her trip to the UK when she was flown over there around 1980. Perhaps Taigh could repost his great account of the flight again that I read a few years back.

[APG85]

Beautiful pictures!!!!
Taigh Ramey's site is below. Link to It's Hawg Wild is on the left...

http://www.twinbeech.com/

[Taigh Ramey]

Great photos alright. Thanks for posting them.

Here is a direct link to the It's Hawg Wild web page on twinbeech.com:

http://www.twinbeech.com/B-29HawgWild.htm

[Pat Carry]

This B-29 is looking too good. Anyone know how complete the remainder of the interior is besides the cockpit?

[Taigh Ramey]

She is one of the more complete B-29's around. She still retains her original crew compartment/station configuration in the forward pressure compartment and they have fixed it up nicely. In her TB-29 days all of the turrets and CFC system was removed. Geoff Bottomley, the director of restoration at the time at IWM, acquired a full set of turrets and system components from China Lake before she left there. These parts have since been re installed to bring her closer to combat configuration.

There are some recent interior photos of It's Hawg Wild at the link above, just scroll down.

[JohnTerrell]

The aircraft looks extensively complete throughout. For more photos of the interior of the aircraft, go to 'Aircraft Walkthroughs' on this page, and click on the B-29 selection. http://www.duxford-update.info/

[the330thbg]

the rest of the interior is as pristine as the cockpit!

[whistlingdeath77]

very nice. is there any reason that this b-29 couldn't be airworthy?

[Taigh Ramey]

She flew in to the museum in 1980 so anything is possible but the last I heard museum's policy is that it will never fly it again. I remember Geoff Bottomley said he got in to a heavy argument with museum officials about keeping fuel in the self sealing tanks to keep them fresh but they demanded that all fluids be drained.

Once over there some pretty extensive intergranular corrosion on top of the wing carry through spar box was discovered. It can be fixed but I am not sure it ever was.

Number 3 engine burned over 10 gallons of oil per hour on the way to and over the Atlantic. Our range on the flight was limited by oil and not fuel. It was originally planned to fly from the US to the UK in one hop but the oil consumption forced shorter hops from Gander to Sondrestrom to Keflavik to Mildenhall then to the IWM Duxford. So, needless to say, some engine work would be in order before she could fly again. The engines are original to the airframe right from China Lake.

With all of the troubles that the B-17 Sally B or the Vulcan has raising funds for insurance and everything else imagine what it would cost to run a B-29 in Europe.

44-61748 is about as close as any museum B-29 is to flying. As I said anything is possible and all it takes is cubic dollars's, squared, and the motivation and interest to get it done.