The Last Flying B-29 FiFi (Read 740 times)

:thanks
Love it!

S W E E E E E T !

When I was in tech school at Shepherd in 1952, all but one of the planes we worked on was WW2 or older. The exception was some war weary F-84As.
So, I cut my mechanics eye-teeth on "old" stuff.
We had B-25s, B-29s, YC-125s, AT-6s,and others.

When I got to The SCAB in November 1952, it was like going on a WW2 base.

I was in the 79th Air Base Squadron.

We owned a C-47 and a T-6D.

I worked on both, and was assistant crew chief on the Texan and assistant flight mechanic on the Gooney Bird.

Also on the base was the 103rd Radar Calibration Squadron.

They had 13 B-29s. The armament had been removed, along with the gun sights and bomb sight. The bomb bays were loaded with electronic equipment, as was much of the fuselage.

They flew around North America checking radar sites and navigation aids.

In 1953 they moved to Hill.

Our squadron would assist them when needed.

The Fighter Squadron at our ADC base was, 87th FIS.

They had F-51Ds.

We helped the 87th a lot with some of the "heavy" maintenance, like changing radiators, or engines.

I kind of liked working on the 29, except the 3350s which were an operating oil leak. The fuselage areas, including the gear, were pretty clean, the engine areas were a grease/oil pit.

The engines got steam cleaned before any major work was done on them.

The Mustang was, well, filthy might fit, but not quite.

The Packard/Rolls-Royce 1650 was/is a fantastic engine, but it is not the cleanest thing you ever saw.

To change the radiator, was, not the most fun thing to do.

Ethylene Glycol coolant is a dust/dirt magnet. So when a radiator popped off excess pressure, or the core let loose, all the dirt in Iowa seemed to find its way to the radiator bay.

It was not easy to change, as it was in the belly on a tail-dragger machine.

But, I wouldn't trade those days for anything. It has always amazed me that I was so fortunate in being able to work on and fly in the planes that helped win WW2.

I still don't really trust a plane that doesn't have a fan in front to cool the engine.

On trips to England I managed to go to Duxford a couple times and see some WW2 birds in flight.

They have two B-17s that they fly on a regular basis.

Jim Too

:god_bless_usa

FiFi was in Fargo a few ago. I asked my friend, Bob Wheeler to go and spend the day, which we did. Bob served in the 20th AF, 58th Bomb Wing, shot down over Japan. As usual, there were tours of FiFi including the flight deck. When we got up there, Bob managed to got into the flight engineers seat, and even tho it was many years ago, every switch, dial & guage came back, along with a tear or two. a few years later at our veterans banquet in November, we unveiled a covered statue of a lady in a wedding dress. The wedding dress was made out of Bob's parachute. Helen, a fine Lady is still with us but bob left us a couple years ago. I miss our mourning coffee visits. A true friend. :salute :us_flag :patriotic-flagwaver