FIFI B-29 Retirement Flight

Boy! That brings back some memories of my own from 1992 when we had the 50th anniversary celebration of the B-29 at Boeing Field . FiFi was there with many other WW2 aircraft and I was able to get a flight in her one morning with Tom Cloyd at the controls. I rode in the bomb aimer's position and had a marvelous flight. Soon thereafter, much to my distress, Tom was killed in the crash of a Confederate Airforce Martin B-26. He was a fine gentleman.
One of the old timers who visited the celebration told me one day , " That we had a bunch of them F-1 F-1's at our field." I saw a few of them myself in 1944 and 1945.
Thanks for posting this, Spasso!
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I finally had a chance to see it this weekend, simply an amazing sight.
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GREAT video inside FIFI for a flyover of Oshkosh (2016?).

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XakK81edKFA[/ame]

I love hearing the intercom chatter, watching the flight engineer work the throttles and see the pilot's smooth controls all the way to touchdown.

 

I don't know if I should mention this because it probably isn't detected by anyone. When the B-29 was refurbished here in Seattle in 1991 the crew that repainted it painted the tail identification correctly in black and then painted the national insignia in black...instead of insignia blue. I guess that I'm the only one who noticed it...sad.

 

Merrill Wien is still around, isn't he? I thought he was giving DC-3 checkrides up until fairly recently.

 

Thanks Bob... I built a model of a Superfortress when I was a kid and the insignia decal was BLUE. Remember it very well.

My favorite bomber. Beautiful airplane. Even looks good on the ground.


Saw FIFI at Rocky Mountain airport (BJC) last summer. Did not climb through as the line was forever long and the flights were sold out.
Each engine has a woman's name. German names (Ingrid) on 1 and 2, English/American names on 3 and 4.

The turbos have been removed as they were a reliability/maintenance issue, and they never fly the plane high enough to use them. The piping is still there.

 

I examined FiFi the last time it was here at Paine Field and got to thinking about how much weight has been taken out of each nacelle by removing not only the two turbos but the related structure, ducts, and controls. They pressurized the fuselage as well as the engines. I figure at least 450 pounds per nacelle.

 

Fertile Myrtle spent years sitting outside at Oakland airport. I used to drive by and look at it through the fence from time to time. Too bad about it's current status but with the cost of operation I guess we are lucky there is even one flying at this point.

 

There are now 2 flying.

'DOC' took it's maiden flight after restoration in '16.

 

Yea, I forgot about that one.

 

So they are no longer running the turbos?

No more pressurized cabin? No more turbo performance?

Just curious. Not arguing... genuinely interested. I can see the lack of cabin pressurization I guess... and without altitude... I guess perhaps you don't need those turbos for the engine either

 

I imagine that the turbos were removed to create less stress on the engines. The EAA disabled the chargers on Aluminum Overcast to not overtax the engines.

My daughter wanted a ride on "FiFi" at Salt lake a couple years ago but it was grounded due to an oil leak on the #2 engine. So I booked her a ride on "Bucket O Bolts" in the co pilot seat she had a blast.

 

thats really cool and as a history nerd... I think its awesome that you have given your daughter that experience. Thats so cool and these kinds of rides are not going to be around forever. Speaking to some of the guys at the formerly known as confederate air force now the commemorative air force... they seemed to push that the FAA wants to see all the old war birds grounded. Hinted to me during a photoshoot that I did there that if one more plane has an accident with passengers its over.

Hope thats not the case

 

Reasons:

They never have even close to a full load... no bombs, just a few overweight people in flip-flops.

They never fly high enough to need pressurization... No Zeros, no FLAK. The turbos were partly for high altitude performance.

Their engines (and props) were always troublesome and the turbosuperchargers made them worse. The number of mission aborts and crashes from engine fires and runaway props almost approches the number from enemy action.

(From a conversation with a CAF rep last summer.)

 

Correct. No need for the superchargers since no high altitude flights are made. They are heavy, troublesome, and unearned weight.

 

From what I understand the end of the strip at Tinian was a big graveyard of planes and crews.