Official B-29 Doc Restoration Thread

[Jeremy Housdan]

Another interesting point of note is that Pima's B-29 Sentimental Journey / Quaker City was Dopey following her service in WWII. I understand though why the museum would rather display the plane in its combat names than "Dopey".

I think all of us working on Doc are glad we have Doc instead of something like Sneezy.

You can bet it would've been marked up as another aircraft....

[Jeremy Housdan]

Control surfaces did not get put on today, but will be done tomorrow. Tomorrow was the only day they can arrange to get a crane operator in the hangar, and sadly I have to work. If I can, I'll stop by the hangar when I get off and try to get some pictures.

[Chappie]

What is the story behind DOC's wartime history?

Who will be the test pilots? CAF crews? How many type rated B-29 pilots are there right now?


Chappie

[Jeremy Housdan]

We wish we knew... that's the part of the logbook that has been redacted. Once it went to barksdale, we don't know what happened to it until it reported to Pyote field in texas for storage at the end of the war. We don't even know what unit it was assigned to. I only speculate that it was assigned to the 331st. As a trainer.

I think we've settled on a pilot, and the scanners for the first flight will be our two chief volunteers, TJ and Jeff. Beyond that I don't know. I believe our pilot has got several hours Inn Fifi, but I can't remember his name.

[Jeremy Housdan]

ok, so evidently I was told wrong about the logbook...


After a little bit of digging, I learned that 44-69972 was assigned to the 29th Bomb Wing, 314th Bomb Group, which places her stationed out of Guam during the war.


Not sure where the redaction in the logbook is, maybe I should look myself.

[Chappie]

After a little bit of digging, I learned that 44-69972 was assigned to the 29th Bomb Wing, 314th Bomb Group, which places her stationed out of Guam during the war.

I've got a huge library of books, with a few on the B-29. I'll leaf through them and see if I get lucky and find a photo of her on Guam.


Chappie

[Jeremy Housdan]

If I had to guess, the markings would be a big square with "O" inside it

[Prop Dome Polisher]

Thank you, Jeremy and ryguy135 for all the great pics and updates.

After seeing Fifi in person I read all 68 pages of the 4 yr. engine overhaul thread.

Now I'm "hooked" on Doc. Great stuff. Keep it coming.

Best wishes on the continued restoration.

Brian

[Jeremy Housdan]

I don't have a lot of new updates just yet, but I figured I'd share another photo or two.





Fire control system setup (I don't think this will be going in the plane, as so to make room for passengers)


our CFC seat (complete right down to the 1938 Ford ashtray, which was standard for all crew seats in the war... this WILL be going in the bomber)


The Fairchild K-17C Aerial BDA camera... probably NOT going in the bomber.

Hope you enjoy the photos!

(edited per our marketing team)

Last edited by Jeremy Housdan on Fri Jan 31, 2014 10:34 am, edited 1 time in total.

[peter]

Would be nice to see all this go back inside to make her 100% correct but understandable given the need for space for fare paying passengers..

[Jeremy Housdan]

I too would be interested in seeing her correctly restored to "wartime standard" (complete turret installation instead of just the turret itself, radar station, insulation, etc)... but as you said, if we want to keep this baby flying, that means making money, and we gotta fly people if we want to make money, as donations alone won't keep this behemoth in the air (ask the Fifi guys... I'm sure they go through a lot of kwan turning wrenches and putting fuel in their plane). And besides, it's reasonably close enough to get the idea... if anything we've improved upon the basic airplane... it's now completely sealed against corrosion, less equipment in the airframe means that it's lighter, many of the fasteners and sealing techniques we use are better and stronger, the engines are not only more reliable but much more powerful (so much so that at full power we'd fly the engines right off the wing I think). It will have an AMAZING navigation system (custom built for the airplane)... many things that will insure that Doc should be around for a good long while to wow audiences at airshows. It will basically be a zero-time brand new B-29 rolling off the assembly line...

I've been jokingly referring to it as a B-29-70-BW-Plus (or maybe a B-29I for "improved")... we threw out "MLU" and "MSIP", since she's long passed "mid-life"

[Prop Dome Polisher]

WOW!

Hats off to all of you.

[K5DH]

Amazing progress, guys! Thanks for the ongoing updates. Keep 'em coming!

Side note... the other day, I found one of those Ford ashtrays on a shelf in our warehouse while I was hunting for some other parts. It's probably a leftover from some ol' yeller-tailed B-17 that used to hang around here...

[Jeremy Housdan]

Amazing progress, guys! Thanks for the ongoing updates. Keep 'em coming!

Side note... the other day, I found one of those Ford ashtrays on a shelf in our warehouse while I was hunting for some other parts. It's probably a leftover from some ol' yeller-tailed B-17 that used to hang around here...

They're hard to find! hold on to it in case someone wants it for a restoration. I think we have all the ones for our crew stations, but I seem to recall they had a devil of a time finding some.

[Jeremy Housdan]

In our search effort to consider the turret situation, we've been considering using some of what we already have. There is a complete lower rear turret we have loaned the museum next door to us that we may use... we also have most of a lower forward turret mechanism
You can see the mounting pivot for the guns themselves as well as the remnants of the flex drive for the ammo belts


Here's the info plate for the turret... proudly made by general electric for the war effort!

I don't know yet if we will use any of this, but it's neat to look at!