B-29 Trainers

[Second Air Force]

I just updated the information on aircraft C C2 (page two) to reflect the information that res6kgcr has found. Thanks for the research, Tom.

Scott

[Edward Sheetmetalhands]

You may want to try the Kansas Aviation Museum... their archives are extensive and have a lot of donated photos.

[Second Air Force]

Thanks Edward, I am in the process of doing just that. You can never tell what can be found in an archive search.

Scott

[Second Air Force]

I had a little bit of time to kill this evening, and decided to look at the rest of the 1950 Pyote photos from the LIFE photo archives. When I got to one particular photo of the scrapping area a serial number kept gnawing at my memory. After going on with the surfing for a while I went back and searched the serial, and found out the final fate of one of the early 58th Wing Superfortresses, one that happened to have a novel name.

First, here she is in a Charles Harper photo taken in the CBI:

Fu-Kemal, 42-6352, B-29-10-BW, 444th Bombardment Group (VH), ship #21 of the 676th Squadron. She was delivered new to the Group at their training station at Great Bend and flew nine combat missions, thirty hump missions, and took credit for sinking six Japanese vessels before being rotated back to the States where she became a trainer.

She ended up in storage at Pyote after the end of hostilities, and here are the photos I found today:


These photos were taken on 7 July, 1950. Sad, but at least the old girl and her crew didn't end up as casualties of war. Or the one in the foreground, for that matter.

Scott

[Django]

Oh, how sad to see them get cut up. But I can't stop looking at and looking for those type of pics! What did you search to find those? Pyote got me nothing.

[Second Air Force]

Here is the phraseology for the entire Pyote series. Just type in "activating planes" and enjoy. It is an impressive series of photos, and part of the pictures follow one airplane from its tie-down spot to the washrack. The airplane that was focused on is marked "541" in handpainted characters on the nose. She was a B-29B-55-BA, 44-84025, later a KB-29 tanker. Here are a few examples of the process:

1. Removing the airplane from the storage stands:


2. Moving from the hardstand to the washrack:

Notice the APG-15 radome and the APQ-7 airfoil are still installed. (Tom, check out the 4-in-a-box--another %*& CONUS code to figure out!)

3 and 4. On the washrack being de-preserved:



5. Another view of the tail, with the young man steam cleaning the brake assemblies we talked about on the "Re-activating B-29s" thread. Also notice that this airplane had the black camouflage scheme removed at some point before storage:


And here is a photo of her after conversion to a tanker, while stationed at Bergstrom AFB with the 27th Air Refueling Squadron:


Scott

[Second Air Force]

Time for a little more information on the storage/scrapping program at Pyote. I just acquired a copy of Rattlesnake Bomber Base: Pyote Army Airfield In WWII by Thomas E. Alexander. As I scanned the contents I read about the 1948 tornado that damaged a good number of stored airplanes. I'm now wondering if some of the machines in the scrap pile were damaged in the storm and finally smelted during the 1950 timeframe.

I'm planning a weekend at Pyote soon, so I'll see if the Pyote Museum and Ward County Historical Society can shed some light on this subject.

Scott

[Ken]

Are there any photos floating around of the first generation of KB-29s that used a grappling hook and hose arrangement vs. the high-speed boom?

[Second Air Force]

I am looking, Ken. I thought I had a photo close at hand of the grapple method, but I can't find it.

Just found a link of a KB-29/B-50 loop refuelling: http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/ ... 01496.html
And a bit of video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXf1fSiOYPs

Incidentally, the first KB-29 in the video was just a few airplanes from Fertile Myrtle on the Wichita production line, and not too much newer than Kee Bird.

Scott

[adflyer]

Does anyone have pics of any of the B-29s stationed at Alexandria Army Air Base? My grandfather was a B-17 crew instructor there and recalled seeing a B-29 crash either on base or very near. He had a piece of the crashed plane in his garage for years.

[Second Air Force]

Adflyer,

res6kgcr has been working on the 2nd and 3rd Air Force marking schemes. He's found some Alexandria B-17 stuff, but I don't know about the B-29s. The tail code for Alexandria was "AL" on the Fortress photos he shared with me. I'll keep looking as well, though my focus has been on 2AF so far.

Scott

[Second Air Force]

I may have found an answer to a question I had earlier on this thread. A number of CONUS B-29 trainers have these squares with a 125, 150, or 175 symbol on them, and I was unable to figure out what they meant. Last night I was reading about the Pyote B-29 training program and found a passage that mentioned crew chiefs getting recognition for the number of hours their ships flew in a month. The first level was evidently 125 hours. After achieving the 125 mark, the crew chief got to paint his name on the airplane. If it made 150 hours in a month, he got to actually name the airplane. I'm thinking the small symbols as on these two photos may have been a part of such a program. A tip of the hat to the engine mechanics who could keep four 3350s running long enough to get 150 hours flown in 30 days! I wonder how many engine, cylinder, and turbo changes had to be accomplished to achieve such lofty goals.....



Scott

[Second Air Force]

While searching for another item this morning I came across this interesting story of USAAF/USAF firefighting schools. http://www.aviationfirejournal.com/pdf/ ... -FINAL.pdf

While scanning through the material I found two photos that seem to show the final disposition of Esso Express, 42-6242, that served as a 468th Bombardment Group tanker in the CBI. On page 53 there is an O.D. B-29 burning at the school, surrounded by other doomed airframes. On page 57 there is a firefighter group photo in front of Esso Express. It appears that she may have ended her days training fire and rescue crews at Lowry.

Scott

[Second Air Force]

Here is a mystery I have been trying to unravel for years. I was researching the "Fabulous Hudson Hornet" racing effort some time ago for a model display that we built for the Joe Weatherly Stock Car Museum at Darlington Raceway. I had two Hudsons to build, and it turned out that the first one was owned by Marshall Teague and driven to victory in 1951 by Herb Thomas. I was fortunate to meet Marshall's widow (he was the first man to lose his life at the new Daytona Speedway in 1959) and as we visited she mentioned that Marshall had been a flight engineer in the 462nd Bomb Group. She then opened a book that she had published in tribute to her late husband, and showed me this photo:

Marshall is the second man from the left in the bottom row with the dirty knee.

She then presented me with this ORIGINAL photo taken in the CBI of Marshall's airplane.


My mystery is this: Several of us have been working on the serial number for Old Man Mose for a while now. We think she was 42-6209, but the 462nd had several camouflaged aircraft. I desperately need the serial, squadron assignment, and a full picture

Through perseverance, AFHRA, and a diligent historian in the 769th Bomb Group in India in 1944, I have the answer to the identity of Old Man Mose. She was 42-6209 as I'd always thought. The proof came when I was poring over the 462nd Group records and found these documents in the 769th file:


She flew Hump and combat missions, survived, returned to the CONUS, and was converted into a combat crew trainer. After an in-flight engine fire and subsequent forced landing in May of '45, at her home station of Roswell AAF, she was declared a Class 26 Instructional Airframe and scrapped later that year.

All I need now is a photo of the entire airplane (if one even exists) and my eleven year quest will be complete.

[Avn-Tech]

Group,

Several years ago, I purchased an L-5 and the owner had put a circle A on the verticle. The owner had passed away years before and left the aircraft to his daughter. She told me that her father had flown B-29's in WW II and that was his unit ID.

You can see photos of the restoration on my friends web site at:

http://web.mac.com/ibnfe2/L-5/L-5_Home.html

Laterrrrrr
Avn-Tech[/img]