Pima's B-29 was brought over to the southern perimeter fence of Davis Monthan AFB with a bunch of other aircraft which was the start of what was then called the Pima County Air Museum.
They were protected by a simple barbed wire fence which evidently didn't slow down too many folks and several of the aircraft were vandalized. The B-29 was looted pretty heavily. The instrument panels were taken along with radios and equipment in both the forward and aft pressure compartments.
She was/is a TB-29 that had her turrets and associated systems removed. She also had avionics upgrades that removed many of her original WWII radios. She still had bomb racks installed in both of her bomb bays. I think she was retired to DM in 1958 but I am not sure of this.
When I started as a volunteer at Pima around 1978 a gentleman named Earl Heath had started putting her back together, Earl was a Korean war air crewman who flew on the B-29 Honey Bucket Honshos (as I recall). He and Bob Johnson (Director of Restoration) had gone to China Lake and retrieved a lot of parts for 44-70016 to make her more representative of a combat ready B-29. They brought back a set of 5 turrets, CFC seat, equipment racks and the instrument panels to replace the ones that had been stolen.
I asked and was allowed to help work on the B-29 to put the gear back in which soon became my obsession. I scrounged all of the instruments, radios, radar and everything else I could find to make her interior more complete.
Here are some photos of her from the good old days.
Hers is the aft unpressurized compartment with the APU on the right. "my" boarding ladder is laying on the floor in the middle. This ladder and several other parts were borrowed by the CAF during the filming of the 1988 movie "The Enola Gay" and never returned. Boy was I pissed about that!
Forward bomb bay looking aft. I had begun to stash B-29 parts in the bomb bay so they wouldn't get lost.
Aft bomb bay looking forward
I think this is Bob Fawver who was the museum director at the time but I am not certain of this.
Starting to fit the instrument panels and instruments. These panels came from China Lake
As you all said she does look a lot better than she did. For an aircraft that flew in in the late 1950's and was looted pretty heavily she has come back a long way.
I am not sure of the cost to bring her back to an airworthy status but I did personally fly her for hundreds of hours back in the late 1970's!
_________________
To donate to the PV-2D project via PayPal click here
http://www.twinbeech.com/84062restoration.htmWe brought her from:
to this in 3 months:
Help us get her all the way back
All donations are tax deductible as the Stockton Field Aviation Museum is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. Tell a friend as the Harpoon needs all the help she can get.
Thank you!
Taigh Ramey
Vintage Aircraft, Stockton, California
http://www.twinbeech.com'KEEP ‘EM FLYING…FOR HISTORY!'
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