The NMUSAF's Lost B-29 "Command Decision"

[APG85]

Interesting pictures. When and where were they taken? If they could be enlarged, it might be easier to verify if it is actually Command Decision. Good chance that it is...

[steve dickey]

Right click save, zoom in to placard on nose just below the windows.
This is as best as I could come up with.

[Shay]

Interesting article but the last paragraph is forbidding "Command Decision was to become a traveling AF display..." Wonder if that meant cut off the wings, tail, aft fuselage and put the forward fuselage on a truck and take it around the country as a display tool...?

That may be and the pictures that 2nd AF posted seem to support that. But with regards to Command Decision all my emails to the NMUSAF have gone unanswered.

Hrrrm, isn't it less than honest for a museum to paint up an aircraft as another? The goal of a museum should be preserving history, not faking it. That would be like me paint up my F-84F as a Thunderbird then slapping kill marks on the side when my aircraft was only a trainer.

I might be wrong but I think the "plaque" in front of the fuselage says it is "marked" as Command Decision.

As Steve pointed out there is a sign that identifies the B-29 as not actually being the actual CD..............Now. But that wasn't always the case. I have email from Clyde Durham (Left Gunner, Top Of The Mark, 28th BS, 19th BG26 combat missions, Korea 1952) In which he tells that the museum did try to pass it off as the original during his visit until he identified himself and showed them a picture taken of him and CD during Korea.

It's a shame. I think CD would be a big hit at Airshows even today. We can only hope that her wadded up remains were kept preserved by some packrat rather than get cut up.

I'm sure in time more picture and information will turn up. Til them here are some bigger pictures....of the real Command Decision:






Shay
_____________
Semper Fortis

[APG85]

Wow, the nose art on the museum bird isn't even close to the original. Personally, I don't think B-29's ever have gotten the respect of the B-17 population. If they did, this fuselage wouldn't be a walk through. It would be pieced back together with components that are hidden in storage to make a complete airframe (and I have been told that the NMUSAF has B-29 components). Maybe my view is to simplistic and certainly there are B-17's that are suffering (gas station) but...

[Second Air Force]

Interesting pictures. When and where were they taken? If they could be enlarged, it might be easier to verify if it is actually Command Decision. Good chance that it is...

Scott, I haven't a clue as to where those photos were taken. I don't even remember where I found them--somewhere on the web years ago. The one picture that shows humans seems to indicate 1950s or early 60s clothing. I puzzled over the trailer photos when I first got them, trying to make sense of the scenario. After reading the newspaper clipping Shay posted it makes a bit more sense. Here are a couple of observations/questions:

In the first photo it appears that the 19th Bombardment Group nose stripe may be on the airplane,so some attempt was made to replicate warpaint. There are a large number of what appear to be mission markers as well. If you look very closely and use a little imagination, it appears that steps have been set up and people are entering through the removed bombardiers nosebowl to tour the aircraft. The row of people on the left seem to be in the waiting line.


The second photo doesn't do much for me other than to show the correct national insignia, sighting blisters and upper turret, and that some effort was made to keep the tail gunners station intact but to completely remove the vertical fin structure and attachments. It may be that there is a step set-up on the right side for visitors to disembark. Too small and grainy to tell from my picture.


Did the USAF "refurbish" the fuselage by stripping the black camouflage off prior to the traveling display? Note in photo three that the "Command Decision" markings and mission symbols on the left fuselage don't even come close to the news photo of M/Sgt. Porto touching her up. That doesn't mean it isn't 657, but why would they strip the warpaint off prior to display?


The fourth photo shows "World's Most ???ted (decorated?) Bomber", which certainly fits into the news article that describes her as the "world's most honored bomber". I would like to be able to read the descriptive text behind the title.


Again, I apologize for these pictures being of such limited use, but they do seem to correspond with the news article that Shay posted earlier. What happened to her after that ???? I don't know. If the Museum still has other B-29 components in storage it would be a fair assumption that they were parts of Command Decision, even if the fuselage on display is not.

Scott

[Steve Nelson]

around the 1st part of the '90s or maybe even the last part of the '80s, "Decision's" fuselage was being transferred to another museum again and this time was loaded on a flatbed truck. While in transit the truck carrying the fuselage was involved in accident wrecking not only the truck but "Decision" as well.

AFAIK, the "walk through" fuselage currently in the museum is the same one they've had since I first visited in 1978. Did they have the original "Descision" fuselage in storage somewhere?

SN

[Second Air Force]

around the 1st part of the '90s or maybe even the last part of the '80s, "Decision's" fuselage was being transferred to another museum again and this time was loaded on a flatbed truck. While in transit the truck carrying the fuselage was involved in accident wrecking not only the truck but "Decision" as well.

AFAIK, the "walk through" fuselage currently in the museum is the same one they've had since I first visited in 1978. Did they have the original "Descision" fuselage in storage somewhere?

SN

That is the impression I got when I asked in 1982, though the individual I talked to wasn't certain if there was a fuselage "back there" or not, just that there were "other" B-29 components.

[Steve Nelson]

Speaking of B-29 fuselages at the NMUSAF, when I toured the storage buildings back in the late 90s, there was a forward fuselage standing vertically back in a corner. The tour never got very close to it, but it appeared to have the nose art of "Big Time Operator." I think it's now on display at another museum.

SN

[APG85]

Speaking of B-29 fuselages at the NMUSAF, when I toured the storage buildings back in the late 90s, there was a forward fuselage standing vertically back in a corner. The tour never got very close to it, but it appeared to have the nose art of "Big Time Operator." I think it's now on display at another museum.

SN

That nose section was once restored and on display at Beale AFB. It is now gutted and sitting outside at the NEAM in terrible condition...

[Shay]

That nose section was once restored and on display at Beale AFB. It is now gutted and sitting outside at the NEAM in terrible condition...

Hmm.......maybe a forward fuse for Kee Bird's center section????



vs now or atleast as of 2003)

http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Air/Boeing-B-29A-Superfortress/0335148/M/?width=1600&height=1212&sok=&sort=&photo_nr=&prev_id=&next_id=


Shay
____________
Semper Fortis

[APG85]

What happened to that nose section is a shame. I'm told some of it's interior was used in the Museum of Flights B-29. The rest went into the B-29 at the NEAM. It's now a gutted shell... The Museum of Aviation at Warner-Robbins also has one (maybe two ?) B-29 nose sections in storage in addition to the B-29 on display...

[Shay]

Did the USAF "refurbish" the fuselage by stripping the black camouflage off prior to the traveling display? Note in photo three that the "Command Decision" markings and mission symbols on the left fuselage don't even come close to the news photo of M/Sgt. Porto touching her up. That doesn't mean it isn't 657, but why would they strip the warpaint off prior to display?

The article posted ealier describes CD's condition as of 1954. If they were to make a travelling exhibit our of her, it's imaginable that they would strip her old paint and replace it with new. A pitty really, another aircraft that would be nice to see be displayed intact as a true time capsule, bumps, scrapes and all.

Also regarding the NMUSAF's caveat, This is what they say on their website:

The museum has a B-29 forward fuselage section on display painted with the Command Decision nose art. The aircraft is not the actual Command Decision; it is just painted to represent it. (The fuselage section is actually from B-29A-65-BN, S/N 44-62139.)

Shay
____________
Semper Fortis

[Django]

Wow, the nose art on the museum bird isn't even close to the original.

No kidding. They didn't even try to make it authentic in style, let alone composition and typography. What a shame.

News article concerning "Command Decision's" arrival to Wright-Patt.
Shay
_____________
Semper Fortis

Very Interesting - I was going to ask you the date of the news article - and then I saw the reference toward the end of it concerning the "Korean cease-fire last summer," so it looks like the article dates from sometime in 1954.

or perhaps late 1953........