Warbird Information Exchange

Since you have a weird thing for old army air fields, do you want these? If not, does anyone else? Thought the aerials were kinda neat. Anyone know where the first one is from?

kevin

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Kevin

the "AAAF" in the caption of the first photo stands for Amarillo Army Air Field, TX....

the hospital area of the 2nd photo can be discerned in the middle at the bottom of the first photo


Cheers
Martin

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Flying is easy: just learn how to throw yourself at the ground and miss

The top photo is Amarillo too, Kevin. Those are great photos, and yes, if y'all are cleaning out the photo warehouse I'd love 'em. Or copies of them.

The hospital at Amarillo looks to have been a 500 to 600 bed facility that had to serve a huge population. I'm not sure how many troops lived at Amarillo at one time, but Lincoln AAF, Nebraska had over 10,000 men at a time in mechanic training or supporting the training function.

Notice the layout of the hangars in the top photo. Those were huge affairs--the base was used for aircraft mechanic training during the war. They are pretty hard to see on the posted photo, but there are B-29s on the apron that were used to train the new wrenches in their trade. Here is one of my favorite named Superforts, obviously based there....


Thanks,
Scott

You're fast, Martin!

What does the nose art on that B-29 depict? The lettering appears to be "?????'s" Flying Solenoid?"

Never seen that many photos of Block 1 through 5 nose art....

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Searching for B-29A-55-BN 44-61966 photo and history!

That is "Amarillo's Flying Solenoid", possibly because she was an electrical systems trainer or just had lots of electrical trouble in flight. I doubt we'll ever know, but the photo was taken at Amarillo during the time it was a B-29 mechanic school training aid.

The very early B-29s are a special favorite of mine, Edward, and I have been researching them for quite a while. Do you happen to know approximately how many were camouflaged? Every time I think I have some idea another example seems to crop up.

Scott

I read in a book it was the first 40 off the line in Wichita production; dunno about Renton (obviously at least the XB-29's), Atlanta, or Omaha.

I dunno how accurate the figure was. My grandfather worked in experimental electrical planning in Wichita Plant II from 1942 to late 1944... him and all of the other original factory employees that I knew have passed. All of the records were transferred to Seattle.

Of course in honor of the Block 1 through 5 camoflauge B-29's, I painted my International Scout those colors....

That pond/lake is still there on the corner of Hospital Dr. and N Avenue, but the hospital structures are gone.

Looks like a T-6 parked at the upper right hand corner of the hospital photo.

Great picture!

Still in use today...

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&ie=UTF8&ll=35.219258,-101.697865&spn=0.053221,0.11158&t=k&z=14

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Zane Adams
There I was at 20,000 ft, upside down and out of ammunition.
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Sure has changes since I sold ice cream in that ramp in 1955, Jet mech school then for the B-47

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Edward,

At least a handful of Renton regular production airplanes were delivered in camouflage, and the first aircraft produced at Bell had many components from Wichita shipped in to get the ball rolling. That aircraft had some camouflaged wing and empennage parts on a basic NMF airframe. I suspect the paint was stripped off after final assembly, but I have a photo in the stack that shows its original appearance. Omaha only produced NMF aircraft. Your number of forty camouflaged aircraft seems about right, but it tends to contract and expand every time I start to work on the research!

Scott