China Lake B-29s Warning! Not For the Faint of Heart

[res6kgcr]

From a Google-LIFE search “New Explosives Experiments”

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q ... 42&ndsp=21

These photos of Loomis Dean of ordinance test on surplus B-29s at China Lake in the 1950s
Such as:


And



And



And for Scott ships L-35 & L-34 which look like transition trainers and have typical Western Flying Training Command markings. They are not from the Central School for Flexible Gunnery at Laredo AAF, TX since they only had two ships and both were transferred out after July 1945 and replace with TB-24s RCT gunnery trainers. 3V18 is a transition trainer from Randolph Field, TX.



All the best to you all

Tom Michel

[APG85]

NOoooooooooooooooo!

[hang the expense]

Most of the strikes look to be from air to ground missles with dummy warheads.Look how it seems to just rip whole skin panels from the birds.Shame someone couldnt get hold of those engines back then and then sit on them for oh say 50 years.

[Second Air Force]

Thanks, Tom.

There is an apparent WWII trainer in the second shot also. In the center of the photo you can make out a set of silver prop cuffs on on of the more intact airframes.

I find it interesting that the L and Randolph coded airplanes have had preservative applied to the transparencies and have a "storage code" on their noses. It would seem that these airplanes had been at China Lake longer than the rest of them. Did a number of redundant trainers get consigned to China Lake just after the war and the rest come in later? It seems so judging from the number of known CONUS trainers in the photos. Also, I did a bit of sleuthing on 44-87703 and she was a B-29-86-BW. Boeing always used increments of five on the normal block numbering and the 86 block on this one probably denotes special mods--perhaps she was a TB-29 originally........

Not surprisingly there are a number of Renton airframes in the photos.

Good stuff to ponder over on an ice-foggy morning.
Scott

Last edited by Second Air Force on Sat Feb 13, 2010 11:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[b29flteng]

Like Randy Sohn (he flew FIFI out of there) said, "It's a good thing the USAF didn't use them as targets"!

[hang the expense]

Like Randy Sohn (he flew FIFI out of there) said, "It's a good thing the USAF didn't use them as targets"!

Thats funny right there,I dont care who you are.

[hang the expense]

Wheel chocks on 4 engine bombers parked in the sand?Thats also funny.Must have wanted to test dummy warheads on evil wheel chocks as well.

[Jollygreenslugg]

For me, it isn't so sad that these aircraft were destroyed, it's good that some survived.

Had there not been a weapons testing program on B29s at China Lake and Aberdeen, these aircraft would have been scrapped with all the rest.

At least some lasted long enough to go into preservation.

Cheers,
Matt
(an unashamed fan of scrapping pics)

[APG85]

For me, it isn't so sad that these aircraft were destroyed, it's good that some survived.

Had there not been a weapons testing program on B29s at China Lake and Aberdeen, these aircraft would have been scrapped with all the rest.

At least some lasted long enough to go into preservation.

Cheers,
Matt
(an unashamed fan of scrapping pics)

You have a good point...

[Quest Master]

A very old thread, but following up with information for the historian, these B-29's photographed by Loomis Dean were taken at Davis Monthan AFB Arizona not China Lake California. The aircraft were salvaged as scrap in 1954.

[wendovertom]

Truthfully, these are great shots of a passing point in time. Interesting thing is here in Wendover we have heard recent rumor of a B-29 recovery in the next year or two - BUT - the rumor and $6.50 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

Tom P.

[Steve Nelson]

I always assumed they were flown in, then towed out to the target range. But several of the aircraft appear to be cocooned with spraylat. I wonder if those were brought there in peices and reassembled.

SN

[sandiego89]

I always assumed they were flown in, then towed out to the target range. But several of the aircraft appear to be cocooned with spraylat. I wonder if those were brought there in pieces and reassembled.

SN

Steve, as per the post above from Quest, the photos seem to be from Davis Monthan, not China Lake, so that would very much explain the mix of B-29's with spraylat preservative and some without any preservative in the process of scrapping. The China Lake B-29's never seemed to have much preservative coating.

I did a quick comparison of the mountain ridge in photo #2 under the broken tail of black painted 462253? in the surface view of google maps, and it sure looks like the mountain ridges NNE of Davis Monthan.

[Steve Nelson]

I always assumed they were flown in, then towed out to the target range. But several of the aircraft appear to be cocooned with spraylat. I wonder if those were brought there in pieces and reassembled.

SN

Steve, as per the post above from Quest, the photos seem to be from Davis Monthan, not China Lake, so that would very much explain the mix of B-29's with spraylat preservative and some without any preservative in the process of scrapping. The China Lake B-29's never seemed to have much preservative coating.

I did a quick comparison of the mountain ridge in photo #2 under the broken tail of black painted 462253? in the surface view of google maps, and it sure looks like the mountain ridges NNE of Davis Monthan.

Thanks..I didn't read the thread thoroughly and missed the comment abou D-M.

SN

[Warbird Kid]

Truthfully, these are great shots of a passing point in time. Interesting thing is here in Wendover we have heard recent rumor of a B-29 recovery in the next year or two - BUT - the rumor and $6.50 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

Tom P.

Hopefully a B-29 comes back to Wendover!