B-29's ...

[The Inspector]

The heat treated KB-50 was 48053, B-50-75-BO converted to KB-50J to MASDC 2/4/65
The B-29 with the trashed #4 nacelle and missing prop looks to be a NACA or early NASA mother plane and looks to be configured to haul either the X-2 or the D-558-2 SKYROCKET from the stabilizing braces.

[Mark Allen M]

Col Paul Tibbetts in front of the EnolaGay


B-29 crew photo taken Aug 11 1945 two days after the Nagasaki mission (US Air Force photo)

[Ken]

The picture below the X-1 shows what appears to be a KB-29M of the 55th Strategic Recon Wing lifting off at Ramey AFB, PR. The "V" on the fin was the 55th.

[sandiego89]

[quote="Mark Allen M"[/img]http://i1303.photobucket.com/albums/ag145/Mark_Allen_M2/BoeingB-29crewphototakenAug111945twodaysaftertheNagasakimissionNotethereisnonoseartontheaircraftUSAirForcephoto_zpsdacda924.jpg[/img]
B-29 crew photo taken Aug 11 1945 two days after the Nagasaki mission (US Air Force photo)[/quote]

I have a question about this photo, while I have no reason to question the accuaracy of the hand drawn date, it does not like like the terrain on Tinian for what I recal. I have flown over Tininian. To me it looks very much like Wendover, UT. Perhaps this is this Sweeney's C-15 crew in front of the Great Artiste while in Wendover? Happy to be corrected- I just do not recal any mountians like that on Tinian, and the buildings look like Wendover as well. Bockscar did a brief stop in Okinawa for fuel after the Nagasaki delivery, but doubt this photo was taken there. Thoughts? Tinian? Wendover?

Love these pictures- thank you for posting. Especially like the 1946 Enola Gay, never knew she carried "Buzz Numbers" in '46. Perhaps this was in the gear up for Operation Cross Roads.

[TAdan]

sandiego89 I suspect you are correct. I'd guess that the picture was taken at Wendover and the caption was added to indicate that the crew pictured flew the Nagasaki mission.

[CAPFlyer]

I'm pretty sure the 3rd picture is post-war. Several sources show "Circle-R" as being 9th Bombardment Wing (Heavy) based out of Mountain Home AFB with B-29's and RB-29's from 1949 to 1954 before converting to the B-47 Stratojet. Additonal clues this is a post-war photo are the B-36 left wing on the far right of the picture (1 full engine pod and one blade of the #2), and the C-74 Globemaster I immediately behind the B-29 featured. Also visible is another B-29, a C-46, a C-47, an F-86, F-84, and a P-80/T-33. With all that, I suspect the picture was taken in 1951 or 1952. I'm pretty sure that Enola Gay was already preserved at this point, so this is another airframe.

Perhaps a B-29 used in the circa 1951 Tibbets biopic, "Above and Beyond?"

Possibly, but I suspect it's just a line B-29 that they took a "press pic" of at an airshow/open house somewhere in the United States judging by the varied types.

You could be right, and I don't disagree that it's post war. While I was absent the day they taught imagery interpretation in school, I don't see the jet pod on the outboard wingtip of the aircraft on the far right of the pic that does indeed look like a B-36 - at least from the engine nacelles, which is about all you can see. That may of course, make it a very early model before they added the jets to that underpowered beast.

First, the addition of the jet pods wasn't due to the plane being underpowered. It was to give it additional dash speed over the target as fighter and missile technology began to catch up with the B-36's extremely (for the time) high altitude capabilities. They were used on takeoff to allow for a bigger conventional bomb load to be carried from the existing runways, but for their original mission, the six R4630's provided more than enough power. Second, the pods were first added with the B-36D model in 1949, however they were delivered between 1949 and 1951. The already built B-36A and B-36B aircraft were then converted between mid-1951 and late 1952. So it's likely this aircraft is an early B-36A or B-36B that hadn't been sent through conversion yet or the date on the photo is slightly earlier than I suspected and is closer to the 1949/1950 timeframe when the F-86 had just been introduced instead of 1951/1952.