Kee bird....as she sits now

[Michel Lemieux]

Kee bird....as she sits now 2008

Taken from the amazing http://www.ruudleeuw.com site.

(Try the link if the pic does not show, tks Django)

http://www.ruudleeuw.com/images/search/116-b29-greenland.jpg

Or got to http://www.ruudleeuw.com/search116.htm
And scroll untill yo see the Kee Bird and hit the

See HERE how it sits now (2008).

link

Last edited by Michel Lemieux on Tue Sep 23, 2008 10:17 am, edited 3 times in total.

[Django]

The images didn't work for me but I found the link to the right page.

http://www.ruudleeuw.com/search116.htm

[viking73]

What a picture. Still makes me sad thinking about it...

[Iclo]

Always the same feeling: "they were so close of the goal"

[The Inspector]

"Gethomeitus" struck again

[daveymac82c]

Maybe it's just me, but I'd say it's still worth recovering, but obviously it can't be flown out. How hard would it be to get it out of there now? Does anything have the lifting ability to get it out of there?

Sad, sad, sad.

-David

[MattP38]

I can hardly look at it, and I can't even imagine how those gentlemen who worked night and day must feel about it. Losing Rick Kriege was even sadder.

[peter]

Would it not be worh it to recover the engines and props?

[N3Njeff]

Would it not be worh it to recover the engines and props?

I am sure it would be for someone but like I had said in previous posts, you might want to do some digging on the salvage rights of whats left and what was on loan!

No this isnt the US Navy or the CAF and the USAF. There were private individuals that loaned parts for this venture and got screwed and those parts are still on the airplane and I am sure that he would like them back.

[engguy]

They should have used that dozer and pulled it outa that wet area.
Interesting the area between the wings didn't burn.
For good sheet metal folks, rebuilding that should be easy, but time consuming. I'm sure Boeing prints for the parts are available.

[John Dupre]

For good sheet metal folks, rebuilding that should be easy, but time consuming. I'm sure Boeing prints for the parts are available.

I was surprised to see that so much remained. I had a distinct memory from the documentary of the entire plane engulfed from tip to tip and stem to stern.

Boeing is very tight fisted with blueprints. There are some available for some of the earlier planes. (I have a microfilm roll of incomplete F4B/P12 prints.) I doubt that they would allow anyone to have B-29 prints for a flyable project that they did not control or influence in some way.

As to the recovery, they ran the on board generator (that started the fire) to get enough amperage to operate the landing gear. Most of the engines installed were not configured for a B-29 and not all the generators could not be hooked up.

I could never understand why the wanted to operate the landing gear in the first place. Why not fly it out gear down? Someone speculated that they needed the airplane aerodynamically clean but I never bought that. Hawkins and Powers flew a PB4Y Privateer from Idaho to Pensacola gear down.

[cott]

Say, that B-36 site looks interesting. What sort of red tape would one have to go through to recover it?

Would the Air Force claim title to it, or would it fall under the same rules as previous wrecked aircraft?

[Ken]

They should have used that dozer and pulled it outa that wet area.

OK, so I wasn't there and have no right to critique - but I always wondered why they didn't use the bulldozer to tow the airplane to the start point of the runway so no taxi would be involved.

As far as the planned flight, I know they put a fantastic amount of work into the plane, but beyond 4 motors and flight controls, I wouldn't have wanted to rely on any subsystems, like the landing gear retract/extension. Maybe they couldn't haul in enough fuel to fly her at gear down speeds? Or DG was worried about gross weight? Although many airplanes do permit faster gear down speeds with the doors removed. And the KB had a less-than-aerodynamic belly anyway ...

Of course, if he got airborne and subsequently spilled the APU fuel can, then this could have had a worse outcome.

Darn shame.

[groundpounder]

what ever happened with that supposed B-17 recovery underway by the air pirates??

[retroaviation]

For good sheet metal folks, rebuilding that should be easy, but time consuming. I'm sure Boeing prints for the parts are available.

As to the recovery, they ran the on board generator (that started the fire) to get enough amperage to operate the landing gear. Most of the engines installed were not configured for a B-29 and not all the generators could not be hooked up.

I could never understand why the wanted to operate the landing gear in the first place. Why not fly it out gear down? Someone speculated that they needed the airplane aerodynamically clean but I never bought that. Hawkins and Powers flew a PB4Y Privateer from Idaho to Pensacola gear down.

Okay, a little explanation of things here......

The APU on a B-29 is run on the ground because with the engines at idle, there is not enough battery power to run the electric/hydraulic motor to operate the brakes. The Kee Bird folks had it running for that reason, not because they were going to cycle the gear. Heck, it had the bomb bay doors removed, so "cleaning it up" by retracting the gear would've made no sense anyway.

And it wasn't just the fact that the APU was running that caused the fire. The fact that they had a gas can hanging up by a coat hanger, which fell off, dumping the gas on the hot APU, is what got the fire started.

Darn shame.

Gary