A boy can dream...
Doc departing Eau Claire. I hadn't seen a B-29 fly since 1984.
Doc departing Eau Claire. I hadn't seen a B-29 fly since 1984.
Four props and there was a drone version.
- Thread starter bobthinks
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HiloHawaiian
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There are only two. I saw FIFI in 1984. Doc returned to flight in 2016. There is supposed to be a third in restoration.
You are sort of out of luck. Technically they can make that flight but with 140 octane fuel no longer available they cannot fly at pressurized altitude. Even if they could, I doubt they would as pressurization is hard on the airframe. I spoke to Doc's pilot and he said both FIFI and Doc are usually flown at 5-6K feet. And 2K miles at a hop for a single show is a big risk. I know they fly B-17's between the US and Europe but they can visit so many places in Europe. A B-29 will get, at best, a mixed response in Japan or Korea.
You are sort of out of luck. Technically they can make that flight but with 140 octane fuel no longer available they cannot fly at pressurized altitude. Even if they could, I doubt they would as pressurization is hard on the airframe. I spoke to Doc's pilot and he said both FIFI and Doc are usually flown at 5-6K feet. And 2K miles at a hop for a single show is a big risk. I know they fly B-17's between the US and Europe but they can visit so many places in Europe. A B-29 will get, at best, a mixed response in Japan or Korea.
They are going several places this year the will be back for Oshkosh and will be in Janesville.. Here is their schedule. Fifi is also busy this summer
As to the sound... glorious. I've heard people talk about a Ford Mustang having a growl... that's a wimper. Those 4 3350's growl. I know that the sound of shrieking jet engine is supposed to be the sound of power and freedom, but for me it is the sound of big radials.
My dad was a flight cadet in in 1950-51. He flew Texans, T-28s, B-25s, was about to start training for the B-29 when his flight train ended (long story, but the 50's were a weird time for the Air Force, but he had a long and happy career). I grew up loving the sound of big radials and dad took every opportunity to make sure I heard them.
Normex
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My mistake as I was there the first time in '88 and the Concorde was there though and very different beast.
I flew there taking 2 connections from Ottawa Canada and only had a small tent and just enough dollars to survive there for 3 days, so on the last portion I landed
there around 10:30 pm. I was alone and without any clue where to set my tent I walked a couple hundred feet in a pasture in pitch darkness and set my tent and fell asleep around midnight.
Man the next morning around 7:00 there was a sound so great I popped out of my tent within a sec and behold I had set up the previous night about 500 feet from the end
of the runway and of course I saw the outline of what else the Concorde taking off with its four Rolls Royces on afterburners. My Oshkosh initiation was complete and I saw
a what I thought maybe a B24 not sure?
I flew there taking 2 connections from Ottawa Canada and only had a small tent and just enough dollars to survive there for 3 days, so on the last portion I landed
there around 10:30 pm. I was alone and without any clue where to set my tent I walked a couple hundred feet in a pasture in pitch darkness and set my tent and fell asleep around midnight.
Man the next morning around 7:00 there was a sound so great I popped out of my tent within a sec and behold I had set up the previous night about 500 feet from the end
of the runway and of course I saw the outline of what else the Concorde taking off with its four Rolls Royces on afterburners. My Oshkosh initiation was complete and I saw
a what I thought maybe a B24 not sure?
If it was four engine's and had a forked tail it was a B-24, Halifax or a Lancaster. If it had a forked tail and wasn't a tail dragger it was a B-24.
The B-24 actually had smaller engines than the B-25 and it's engines had the same power as the B-17. They have a radial growl but not nearly as throaty and deep as the B-29. I love the sound of all of them. The B-29 just gets more love.
