Aviation enthusiasts! B-29 "Doc" has her Airworthiness Certificate!

[A HERETIC I AM]

On the 13th I put up this thread about her moving under her own power;
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027830931

The aircraft has gone from this;


To this;


The goods;

The newly restored B-29 "Doc" now has an FAA airworthiness certificate, 16 years after restorers brought the historic aircraft to Wichita. Doc's Friends, the organization behind the project, said Friday a first flight is "imminent." The B-29, salvaged from the Mojave Desert in 1987 by Tony Mazzolini, was moved in pieces to Wichita in May 2000 for the restoration, which gained momentum a few years ago with the formation of Doc's Friends. The heavy bomber's four engines started for the first time in September and the team performed a taxi test earlier this month.

The restoration team will soon submit a formal request to the U.S. Air Force and Pentagon to gain access to a runway at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita for high-speed taxi and flight tests. “It’s been nearly 60 years since Doc has flown and 16 years since this majestic warbird arrived in Wichita to be restored, and now we are another major milestone closer to a return to flight,” said Jim Murphy, Doc’s Friends Restoration Program Manager. “Today, we celebrate this major milestone and honor the hundreds of thousands of hours of volunteer work that has gone into restoring our B-29."

From here

More on Doc;

http://www.b-29doc.com/

[Duckhunter935]

1. Awesome, she looks beautiful

[Galileo126]

2. Holy moley! Whatta'n awesome plane!

And to think, that bird was wasting away just 50 miles from my house...

Very glad to see it was restored. One of these days, I will fly in a B-17, B-29 or a DC-3/C-47.


Some day...

[A HERETIC I AM]

4. Where do you live?

I lived in Palmdale from '01 thru '04, so I was about 100 or so down the road from China Lake.

Insignificant aviation related fact;

The house I was renting was about 3 miles south of the Plant 42 complex and straight down the street was LA Center, the FAA Air Route control center. Also the "Skunk Works" is in that property and that was about 5 miles away.

We used to see all sorts of nifty aircraft flying around. Once saw a B2 flanked by 2 F-117's take off and do laps around the town before heading off.

I'm so glad they got Doc airworthy. What an incredible effort. I hope she'll come to Florida soon.

[hunter]

3. If I was a machine, maybe somebody could rebuild me!

This is a great story.

With modern fabrication tools and materials, some parts of the plane are better than original equipment.

[A HERETIC I AM]

5. No doubt.

If you're interested in the restoration of old machines, Google "UP Big Boy restoration"

The Union Pacific Railroad is in the process of restoring to operation a 4-8-8-4 "Big Boy" steam locomotive. Any and all parts not salvageable will have to be fabricated from scratch.

[hunter]

6. I can't remember if that was one of the engines I climbed on as a kid...

... but our family visited the fairgrounds often enough.

My children got to climb on dangerous steam engines as little kids, but now it's considered too dangerous.

The engine we visited most often was in a local park. It's been moved to a railroad museum.

[A HERETIC I AM]

7. The one they are restoring is 4014...

Which was at the Pomona Fairgrounds since the '60's

If you look into the subject, there are several on display but 4014 was determined to be the best candidate for restoration, in large part due to the dry SoCal climate.

So....yeah...if you climbed on a giant steam engine at Pomona Fairgrounds, that was it!

[A HERETIC I AM]

8. And BTW...

There are a bunch of YouTube vids on the preparation to move it and the move itself, all rather fascinating. They laid temporary track to get it to the Metrolink line, north of the Fairgrounds property

[hunter]

9. The smaller engine in our local park was ingloriously moved on a heavy equipment trailer.

It had arrived in the park on rail, but those were long gone.

I found the playlist, thanks!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh3l5IvpX5haUFK5n7yqfs2vIoq_wGTVe

The steam updates are fascinating.

[A HERETIC I AM]

11. ...

[Angel Martin]

10. good for Doc's Friends !

supposedly only one other B29 still flying.

I saw a B17 fly last summer and also went through it. There are only about a dozen B17s still airworthy.

[A HERETIC I AM]

12. FIFI....

Serial Number 44-62070 is the only other flying example;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFI_%28aircraft%29


http://www.airpowersquadron.org/#!b29-schedule/c1yws

If you're OK with twin-engined WWII bombers, there are quite a few B-25's around. When they come up for sale, expect to drop a couple mil!

[Eleanors38]

14. Sexy planes!

[Eleanors38]

13. I saw Fifi when it visited the old Austin Muny Airport. A fuselage blister held a GE computer..

part of its then state of the art computerized gun system (the fuselage gun turrets held no gunners, as the MA Deuces were automated.). I talked to a crewman who also flew in WW II and the Korean "Conflict." He said that the new MiG fighters outran the computerized defenses and the early U.S. escorting jets, resulting in heavy bomber losses. Things were to let up a few weeks later when the new Sabre jets took over from the early jets. Poor guy essentially lost his inter-war pharmacy business when he was called to Korean duty (shortage of B-29 crew members).

The next day, while working on a bus in West Austin, I heard a deep rumble and saw it arcing over the capitol bldg, escorted by a Japanese Kate dive bomber. Rather moving and virtually extinct experience.