Boeing B-29 Superfortress

The original specification for a large four-engine bomber to succeed the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress was issued by the U.S. War Department in January, 1940, but it was considerably modified some months later to incorporate increased armament and load requirements.

The contract for these XB-29 prototypes was placed with the Boeing company on August 24, 1940, and a service development order for 13 YB-29s in the following May. With America's entry into the war, a vast production program for the B-29 was initiated, involving five main production plants and hundreds of subcontractors.

The first XB-29 prototype built at Seattle flew on September 21, 1942. The first YB-29 built at Wichita flew on April 15, 1943, and the first Renton built B-29 was delivered in December, 1943. The B-29 in which Bubba was killed, serial number 44-69770, was built in Wichita in 1944.

The B-29 was first reported in action on June 5, 1944, in an attack on railway yards at Bangkok, Siam, and on June 15th, the first raid was made on Japan from bases in China. Since that date, attacks on the Japanese mainland were steadily stepped up, mainly from bases in the Marianas and on Guam, with forces of up to 450 and 500 Superfortresses.

On August 6, 1945, a B-29, the Enola Gay, under command of Col. Paul W. Tibbits, Jr., took off from the tiny island of Tinian and dropped the first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima and life on this planet would never be the same.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Wing span: 141'3"

Overall length: 99'

Engines: Four 2,200 HP Wright R-3350-23 eighteen cylinder, radial air-cooled engines, each engine with two exhaust-driven turbo-super chargers.

Cruise speed: 220 mph

Maximum speed: 365 mph

Service ceiling: Over 31, 850'