Kee Bird wreckage recovery

[peter]

I trieda search and I dont see loads of pics only one black and white wartime one and a shot of "doc"

[B-29 Super Fort]

but don't ask me.

We won't...

It's just a joke... sheesh...


If anyone's interested in seeing a ton of images of Kee Bird, go to Corbis.com and do a search for 'B-29'.


Fade to Black...

Thanks BlackWolf The Corbis site has many nice photos of the Kee Bird under restoration by Greenameyer's team and unfortunately the photos of the fire. It does appear the engines, main landing gear and outer wing portions survived the fire reasonably well.

[Tulio]

The book Hunting Warbirds has some good material related to the Kee Bird.

"Hanging a fuel tank over the APU in the back of the airplane while taxiing over a very rough surface? Hmmm." This seems to have been the case according to what the book says.

Saludos,

Tulio

[m50a1ontos]

Here's Hopin was never legaly obtained from the Navy in the first place. "Sombody" in the Doc organization didn't quite tell the truth to the volunteers that went in to get 44-70102. Doc was legit, the other B-29 wasn't. When Doc left Inyokern the "museum" there folded like a house of cards in a monsoon. That's when it was discovered that no real legal paperwork existed for all the other aircraft on the property. The Navy wasn't happy and took it all back. "Sombody" got his airplane, but he didn't get his parts bird. He might have IF he had followed channels and done everything above board. The museum in Inyokern might still be there IF the right folks had signed the right papers and made it all legal.

Fault lays on both side of the fence. Things are much tighter now regarding "donations" because of this.

44-70102 is safely tucked away in the airfeild boneyard...where she will STAY until such a time as funds are generated for her restoration for display on base.

I certainly wish the Doc bunch well getting their bird back in the air...but plenty of bridges got burned out here where she came from.

A friend of mine (now deceased) flew the Twin Otter in the cleanup operation after the fire. The depth of the lake where the B-29 stopped and burnt is only about three feet deep, so according to him it's all still there and mostly above water. Lee swiped the (burnt) flap indicator for me and it now resides on my bookcase.

Hard to believe that was almost ten years ago...

Dan