A walkaround of the B-29 at Dobbins ARB, Marietta GA

[B29Gunner]

Yesterday I did another interview about reuniting a B-29 Tail Gunner with the 150 "lost" letters he wrote home during the war, (see previous thread http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=42310) and for the second part of the interview with NBC's "11Alive News" in Atlanta we visited Dobbins ARB in Marietta and the B-29 "Sweet Eloise" they have on display there. Unfortunately we were all running behind from the drive and the reporter had literally 10 minutes before he had to race back to the station and start putting the story together for the news that night, so we only got a few quick shots of me walking around the bird. Afterwards I stayed a little while longer and took some pictures myself, and thought I would post them since you don't often see too many pics of this B-29.

We weren't allowed to film or photo from any "angles" that would show the entrance to the base, or the buildings on the base located behind the B-29 for "security reasons," so apologies in advance as I couldn't take a lot of pictures that I wanted to. Special thanks to the 94th Airlift Wing Public Affairs Office for working with us on short notice!

Link to the video and story from yesterday http://www.11alive.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=203671

And on to the B-29!














Tailskid missing a few "critical" parts!


Missing rivets, quite a few were missing on the left rear fuselage


Bomb bay doors



This Bird's feet are firmly planted!



"Three down and welded!" (note the steel pipe welded to the strut)


The nose well...


Homemade ladder hanging from the chains securing the nose hatch


The nose hatch


Nose well looking fwd, the X brace they added to keep the gear doors open (some may notice something "funny" about those doors!)



Nose well looking aft


They also added bolts to hold the gear doors on and open (note the corrosion in the extrusion)


Bolts, and a repair from some point in time


Nose well looking fwd at the strut, trunnions etc


A look at the jackscrew that lowers and retracts the nose gear; electric motor on the right, on the left is a gear box for manually cranking the gear up or down from the cockpit if the motor fails






MLG well looking fwd


MLG well looking aft



MLG well looking fwd, you can see where the drag struts attach to the back side of the fwd spar, etc etc




A birdie nest in one of the gear doors


A -3350 marking it's territory



Some down right NASTY corrosion on the leading edge of the right flap!



Another bird nest





My ugly mug (I ruined my new shirt crawling up in the gear wells, ha!)


Aaaaand finally, the particulars of this B-29...she's got some history to her! Hopefully we can get her indoors one of these days!


Hope ya'll enjoyed!

~Trevor

[The Inspector]

Thank you for the long photo post and closeups of the Eloise. All in all, she appears to be in pretty good shape, the doubler in the nose well web to flange looks like a factory install so it may be a stiffener installed over a factory gap or a production mod to address an in service issue encountered in action.
Has anyone told the base admin putzes that you can see EVERY building on the friggin' base (including the entrance to the base) by using an interesting app called 'GOOGLE EARTH?? I'd be interested to hear about the C-140, C-141 and S-3 VIKING parts and bits directly North of the F-14/A-4/A-6 park.

Last edited by The Inspector on Fri Sep 02, 2011 9:37 am, edited 1 time in total.

[steve dickey]

Yes, thank you! Too bad you couldn't get inside. Something I've dreamed of; documenting the interiors of all surviving B-29's.

[snj-5]

Looks like the Navy painted that thing...

(Navy motto = If it moves, paint it gray. If it doesn't move, paint it gray).

Bela P. Havasreti

[Pogmusic]

Georgia is home to 3 B-29s. Wow, a flight of 29s all within about two hours of each other. The Robins AFB B-29 was built in Marietta.

[hahnej]

Thanks for the pictures. Makes me think about the total amount of 'stuff' that must be maintained to keep Fifi flying....lots. I guess the amount of items is about the same for a 17 or 24, but the size of the B-29 makes it even more impressive.

[Dave Lindauer]

On the subject of paint -- Is the black coating on the plexi plain 'ol paint or is some special coating used?

[T-28mike]

Bela, you forgot.... If it's not supposed to move, paint it red.

[APG85]

On the subject of paint -- Is the black coating on the plexi plain 'ol paint or is some special coating used?

It's a fake nose plexi. The entire "restoration" was a hack-job on this plane. I've got a book on it and it would make you cringe. At least she survives and they tried. It's hard on a tight budget and no facilities....

[Warbird Kid]

It's hard on a tight budget and no facilities....

Boy does that sound familiar....