Warbird Information Exchange

The web cam views are from July and August. Anyone know how the progress on the B-29 "Doc" is coming along at Wichita?

I SHOULD know, but unfortunately because of Doc's location, I don't.

Enough semi-serious kidding.

The sad news is that Mr. Ziegler no longer works at Boeing. He was the project director, but since he's been gone, there have been no updates.

I do believe that they are progressing, however. They need engines and fuel cells.

Thanks Wolverine. I hope they continue to make progress on it and look forward to any news update on it you hear.

I wonder how much effort would be required to take a C-130 to the "Kee Bird" site and recover those engines. Is it true that those engines are thought to have sunk beneath the water's surface following a subsequent thaw?

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Any idea how deep the lake is. Would they be rebuildable if submerged in water?

I was visiting the Georgia Veterans Memorial State Park near Cordele, GA, a couple of weeks ago, where they have a B-29 42-93967 on display. I was talking to the Park Ranger and he told me that Boeing had approached him to purchase the main gear actuating cylinders for installation on "Doc". They were offering him $300 each, and he thought that was quite low. What do you guys think? Is he being low-balled? Since that plane is a state asset, he was going to have to go through a lot of red tape to be able to sell them, and he wasn't going to do it if he was only getting a pittance for the cylinders.

By the way, this display really needs a cover over it to protect the 4 aircraft that are there. Anyone know of someone that may be willing to help?

Walt

Is he talking about the main gear retraction clyinders, or the smaller door actuators etc? If he is talking about the main cylinders, then yeah I would think they were worth more than $300. I'm sure that the Doc crew is looking for more of a donation than trying to buy up the parts outright. Does the CAF have any of those parts they could help out with? I thought I remembered seeing some gear parts in the parts pile at Midland. I may know of one other source as well. If someone from the Doc program wants to contact me via PM with what exactly it is they are looking for, I'll see if I can pull some strings or maybe work a trade that would help both parties.

Here is a question, would these actuators be the same as on a KC-97???? Isnt the gear identical????? I would think that someone would have a bunch of those running around.

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Idiot Brit here.

Wasnt the KC-97 based on the B-50 which in turn was a beefed up B-29.

My guess is that there some annoyingly important differences

I read somewhere it would cost $600,000 to get the engines, props, etc from Greenland. (I think it was the book on the Kee Bird)

I'm not an expert on the B-29, but MOTF is right--and yes, there are some big differences--mainly engines/fuselage structure (between the B-29 and the KC-97).

As far as I know, the CAF has donated parts to Doc.

I doubt I'll hear much more than you all on the topic, I'm afraid. Because I can't work there anymore, I'm really out of the loop.

Unless Doc flies before I turn 18, I'll be able to work on it again.

Couple of random thoughts here. Is the Doc crew still to go to the West Texas B-29 crash site and take whatever they can find that is still usable? And also, what about the Russian built B-29 clones. I know there are still several of those lying all over the Soviet Union in various states of completeness. Is anything usable from those?

Dross Metals (later to become DMI Aviation) ran a bunch of ads in T-A-P during the early 80’s selling KC-97s. Since some stuff was coming on the market, anything that would’ve been usable on a B-29 would have been snapped up.

I just don’t remember anyone getting excited about grabbing some spares that could be used on the B-29.



Let me guess; liability issues?

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I believe only one of the Russian built B-29 clones still exist.

I'll see if I can find more info on that.

Eric

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I have done some research and found that 3 complete TU-4s, Russian B-29s, still exist. Two at the Aviation Museum of China, Datangshan, Mongolia. And one at the Air Force Museum, Monino, Moscow, Russia.

Eric

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Those are the complete ones, but I have seen fairly recent photos of others in scrap yards etc, mostly in many many pieces, but there none the less. I am trying to dig up the info now.