Kee Bird - What was the end goal?

[APG85]

A lot has been written about the attempted recovery of the B-29 Kee Bird. I was wondering what the end goal was with the airplane had the recovery attempt succeeded. They were going to fly it to Thule for more maintenance. Does anyone know what that plan was i.e. replace hydraulic lines, engine work, etc.? Was Thule AFB going to provide a hangar and support? Where in the US was the plane going to be taken? Was it going to a museum for restoration, storage or was it going to be completely restored for airshow flying like DOC and FIFI?
Just curious if anyone knows what the plan was for the plane had it survived.

[DoraNineFan]

My understanding was that Darryl Greenamyer partnered with a real estate mogul who wanted to profit on warbird recovery and sales. The plan was to sell the aircraft for about $1 Million in 1994 dollars. So for profit unless I understood wrong.

The plan was to ferry it to Thule and continue maintenance for the ferry flight to the US. There is a very old thread here on WIX with info allegedly from an airman at Thule saying that the base commander did not want any of the nonsense or possibly a crash on his record and was planning to stop them if they landed.

Corrections are welcome.

[Warbird Kid]

I'm also quite curious into what was the long term goal for this airframe, had the recovery been successful. I remember seeing someone comment that Daryll wanted to fly her into Oshkosh after the recovery. Presumably July of 1995 had they gotten her out of Greenland. Or maybe 1996 if more work was needed had they arrived in Thule. I have also heard that the base commander was planning on seizing the aircraft upon landing. Though I'm not sure if there is any validity to that claim.

My question is: Will we ever see the remains of the Kee Bird recovered? The aircraft didn't sink completely as expected initially, and its wings, engines, nacelles, etc are all still very much intact and could be a great foundation for a static restoration. I would imagine in order to accomplish such a task, you'd need to get a heavy lift helicopter up there during the summer months, lift the pieces on to dry land, dismantle / prep them for recovery, and most likely sling them out from underneath a helicopter down to Pituffik Space Base (formerly Thule AFB). Or could a C-130 get in there to recover the remains of the airframe?

Something interesting to note: one of the original Wright R-3350 engines that was on the Kee Bird when it crashed is currently for sale down in Texas.

Original “Kee Bird” B29 engines - Listed in Gainesville, TX
I have the original B29 engines that were on the “Kee Bird” when it went down in Greenland. Have documentation to go with them.
https://www.facebook.com/share/175RYrxoeY/

[JohnB]

If they were planning on selling it, I wonder who the potential buyer might have been?
Spending that kind of money to recover a pretty esoteric type without an eventual buyer in mind seems pretty sporty.
The two main players, the CAF and Weeks, already had B-29s.
Perhaps Nichols at Yanks, or Evergreen?

A B-29 is a bit too much for a casual collector, or even a "Sally B"-like enthusiast group to fly.
And a million dollars would have been more than most museums could afford for a static.

Perhaps they were looking at someone like Paul Allen (I'm not sure when he started collecting), or perhaps a large community group like the one that restored Doc.

Last edited by JohnB on Mon Aug 11, 2025 11:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

[old iron]

Or could a C-130 get in there to recover the remains of the airframe?

What I heard is that the Kee Bird recovery crew left a real mess -- I heard this from someone working on the environmental cleanup. Oil on the ground and so forth. The upshot of all this is that there will likely never be permission granted for another try.

This was something of a "cowboy" operation (I say without the intent to criticize cowboys), which led to the loss of the aircraft and something of a black eye that will be raised whenever similar operations might be proposed.

A great story, but with a so-sad ending, and could have been even worse if permission to land in Thule was an issue.

[JohnB]

Let's remember while a Thule commander would of had some say so, ultimately he would answer to his bosses, and if told to do so (probably following political intervention) he would have had to welcome the B-29 and crew.
By the time of the Kee Bird affair, the Air Force was officially supportive of historical efforts, so the Thule commander very well could have been told to support the effort.

Still, in my AF career, I found a few commanders to be pretty risk adverse. At one base, a commander closed the base aero club for fear of an accident somehow making him look bad.
Others were a bit more accommodating. One SAC air division commander allegedly kept his Mustang on base.

[Warbird Kid]

Or could a C-130 get in there to recover the remains of the airframe?

What I heard is that the Kee Bird recovery crew left a real mess -- I heard this from someone working on the environmental cleanup. Oil on the ground and so forth. The upshot of all this is that there will likely never be permission granted for another try.

This was something of a "cowboy" operation (I say without the intent to criticize cowboys), which led to the loss of the aircraft and something of a black eye that will be raised whenever similar operations might be proposed.

A great story, but with a so-sad ending, and could have been even worse if permission to land in Thule was an issue.

I have heard this too and would imagine if a recovery was ever granted permission in the future, one of the conditions would probably be to remove every bit of evidence that humans were ever there.

[lucky52]

Any idea the water depth where it Sank?

[APG85]

I'm not sure who the Base/Wing Commander was at the time, but I would think he would have been fully briefed on the effort to get the plane out and down to Thule. I think (could be wrong) that the Smithsonian had some background support for the effort. The sticking point probably would have come from the Air Force verifying the plane was safe to fly out of Thule and back to the States. Was Geenamyer qualified in B-29 operations and would he have been allowed to fly it back? Maybe a CAF B-29 crew would have participated as oversight? With the cost and amount of work needed, I have doubts that this plane would have been maintained as a flyer once it got to the States. Who knows? Would have been neat to see the plane in a hangar on display un-restored...maybe with the Caribou.

The lake the wreckage sits in looks very shallow from the recent pictures that are on the internet. Most of the wreckage is above the ice. With other B-29's disassembled and in storage, I doubt anyone will ever make the effort to recover the Kee Bird wreckage.