B-29 Doc | Doc's Friends | B-29 Superfortress | Restoring History
Lost my grandfather and last parent last week and in the late 50's he worked on the Convair B-36 Peacemaker "6 turning, 4 burning" and the B-47 Stratojet when he was in the Airforce (neither still fly).
As a way to get back to my roots (grew up around aircraft) my cousin and I went to see Doc today. Just happened to be the 75th anniversary of VJ-Day.
Doc the B-29 is only one of 2 still flying, and today I was lucky enough to get video of not only startup but takeoff. Unfortunately my camera overheated as he started to taxi out.
If you have good speakers the "Hybrid" Wright Duplex-Cyclones make an awesome noise (~3k hp each.)
The camera overheating gave me an excuse to drive to the end of the runway, and catch him taking off. Now most of he filming was through a fence at this point, and my cousins kids are asking questions, but a low pass in a B-29 is a low pass in a B-29. B-29s are amazing in person, it's been years since I was in Fifi but hope to get a ride in Doc before winter maintenance begins this year.
Doc was built here in Wichita, Kansas along with over 1,600 other B-29s back in the mid 40s. Those same factory's later produced the B-47, B-52 and today over 70% of the 737 (and P-8 Poseidon.)
Even with our wide and rich aviation history, Wichita would not be the same if it were not for the B-29, and it makes you appreciate the history and this aircraft even more.
If you ever visit Wichita (check out Doc's hanger), or if Doc or Fifi visit an airshow near you, go check them out, especially with kids. If you really want to have fun go for a flight. This video does this aircraft no justice.
The work that has gone into this aircraft, to pull it 40 miles out of China lake in '98, disassemble and ship it back to Wichita by '00, then the thousands of hours volunteers spent over 15 years to restore it to flying condition is hard to comprehend. Some of the people that helped restore Doc were people that originally built them back when they were new.
Thankfully the Commemorative Air force figured out most of the hard parts by simply keeping Fifi flying over the years or it would have been ever longer. They ran out of engines...and Fifi sat for nearly a decade. The engines that run in Doc and Fifi are Hybrids of two Duplex-cyclones (one is from the A-1 Skyraider) that have plenty of spares, fit under the cowlings and all the B-29 accessories bolt up to. While still supercharged, they had to ditch the turbochargers.
I'm not pushing a YouTube channel, it's simply the easiest way to share video. This one is public so you guys can share, the rest are private.
(I recorded in 4k 60fps but do not have any editing software that does over 1080p, need something that can do 360*cameras too that's cheap, any recommendations? I'd like to redo this in 4k, and eventually get video flying, I'm tempted to splurge the $1,500 for the Navigator spot and take my 360* camera.)
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