B-29 interior photos?

[Steve Corbett]

Does anyone have any interior photos, such as the radar operator etc, photos of any B-29's. I have seen the interior of FIFI many times and I was wondering what she looked like when she was complete.

[CorsairFreak]

Here's a couple of what the interior looked like on Kee Bird.

http://www.ramonacafe.com/keebird.htm

Here's another

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/flygirls/s ... hoto1.html

I have pics of the interior of Fifi too if you want a refresher.

[Steve Corbett]

The second link was exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks

[APG85]

As (nearly) always, the yoke center caps are missing.........

[systemofadown1162]

Whats the history on the Keebird? The first link said it was in a lake in Greenland? Im kind of confused.

[Wolverine]

There was a book about it called Hunting Warbirds. Essentially, Greenmayer decided to fly it off the ice (STOOOOPID!!!) and someone had hung the APU from the roof in the back. The APU fell, caught fire, fuselage was destroyed by fire (in typical B-29 fashion--fuselage gets destroyed, wings and tail make it out ok). The wings, engines, props, etc are in good shape (except maybe the wing center section). If someone had the bucks to make a new fuselage (or mated it to a fuselage section already extant), they could have another flyable B-29.

But the "restoration" still wouldn't be as good as Doc.

[Warbirdnerd]

You can read all about it here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2303b29.html

[systemofadown1162]

Why was it just sitting there and if it was so simple, how come no one tried to recover it before?

[skymstr02]

and someone had hung the APU from the roof in the back. The APU fell, caught fire, fuselage was destroyed by fire (in typical B-29 fashion--fuselage gets destroyed, wings and tail make it out ok).

It wasn't the put-put that fell, it was a jury rigged gas can to supply fuel to the put-put.

Quote:

DARRYL GREENAMYER: It's gonna burn to the ground. Apparently, the APU was left running in the tail, and the fuel tank broke loose and dumped fuel on the APU and started the fire in the tail. That's where the fire extinguisher was, but we couldn't get to it. I don't think it would have made a difference which way we took off. It would have been airborne a third of the way across the lake.

[APG85]

It's my understanding that the APU fuel pump in the fuel tank had failed. They took the fuel tank and hung it in the top of the fuselage with a line to the APU to gravity feed. As the plane was bouncing along during taxi tests, the line ripped loose and fuel dumped onto the APU. The result was a fire. The Nova documentary ("B-29 Frozen In Time") is one of the best I've ever seen but to get the full story, you need to read "Hunting Warbirds" and the magazine articles that came out after the attempted recovery. Smithsonian (not Air & Space) had a good long article on the attempted recovery. The Nova documentary actually picks up the story during the second year efforts. You'll notice that the Kee Bird is already sitting on it's gear when the Caribou makes it's first landing at the site. That's because Greenamyer had been up there before and actually jacked the aircraft while it was in the lake - pretty amazing stuff.
The whole thing is heartbreaking...............

[APG85]

Here's a link to some good color photo's of the interior of the B-29 "It's Hawg Wild" at Duxford...........

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mclaydon/bkdoor-b29.htm