The Plane that was More Expensive than the Atomic Bomb
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ก.ย. 2024
- The Boeing B-29 Superfortress not only brought one of the world's largest and most brutal conflicts to a shocking end by delivering the atomic bombs on top of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but it also revolutionized combat aviation technology as a whole.
With a staggering wingspan of 141 feet and a total 99-foot length from nose to tail, the colossal aircraft was the heaviest bomber in the world when it flew for the first time in 1942. Moreover, it had two enormous bomb bays that could carry the most massive payloads of any warplane.
The Superfortress was engineered as one of the first warplanes with a pressurized cabin, and it was able to fly so high that no Japanese aircraft could reach it.
The project was the most expensive and ambitious military undertaking by the US military of its time, costing even more than the Manhattan Project that created the atomic bomb.
Still, as the US appeared to have reached supremacy over the skies, the most advanced bomber in the world was stolen by its wartime ally, sending America into a desperate pursuit to get it back…
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Join Dark Skies as we explore the world of aviation with cinematic short documentaries featuring the biggest and fastest airplanes ever built, top-secret military projects, and classified missions with hidden untold true stories. Including US, German, and Soviet warplanes, along with aircraft developments that took place during World War I, World War 2, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf War, and special operations mission in between.
As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Skies sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect and soundtracks for emotional impact. We do our best to keep it as visually accurate as possible.
All content on Dark Skies is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. We are history enthusiasts and are not always experts in some areas, so please don't hesitate to reach out to us with corrections, additional information, or new ideas.
The B-29's gun systems were so advanced, they had an air to air kill ratio of 12:1, compared to 11.5:1 for the P-51. That kill ratio is exclusively against fighters trying to shoot down the B-29, while the P-51 was also shooting down some number of cargo planes and bombers, while also being able to maneuver to avoid being shot down. Even Mig-15's in Korea tried not to get too close. The Soviet's were unable to reverse engineer the gun system.
Doesnt hurt that by the time the B-29 came around most of Japans veteran pilots had been killed long ago.
@@Baconatorz Yes, and also that the interceptors were at the edge of their performance envelope at that elevation.
If the US kill ratios were real, the Japanese airforce would have lasted a month or less. But they certainly killed aircraft and pilots faster than Japan could replace them.
They did. And they upgunned it ; Tu-4
The B-29 would fly higher and faster than nearly all Japanese fighters. However the B-29s had to be withdrawn from Korea due to significant loses. The gun systems would simply not track fast enough to track the Migs.
My Dad piloted B29 out of Saipan in WWII. After the war he left the military briefly, but was among the vets who were returned when the USAF was formed, flying and instructing B29, the refueling version KB29 and the B50. At one time or another he flew various heavy bombers of that era, up to and including the ten engine B36 ("six turning, four burning").
Now that was a huge airplane... The B36 had almost 90 feet wider wingspan than the B29.
But his favorite was the twin engine B25, which he said was like driving a sports car after flying all the bigger bombers.
In the late 1950s he flew KB29 with the 509th Squadron out of England. Today my nephew's son... Dad's great grandson (my "grand nephew"?)... is piloting B2 with the 509th out of Whiteman AFB.
and another my dad thing here
That's awesome! Where was your dad on B-50s? My Grandfather was a flight engineer on them out of England. They were "weather recon."
Much gratitude to your family for their service
@@florencemodina6293 Indeed, allow them 😂, the stories are interesting to read😂
@@Swormy097 how about my dad Adolf hitler? Have you heard about him?🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Thank you for this short documentary. My uncle was a tail gunner on a B-29 that came to tragic end on August 5, 1950. The plane was co piloted by Brig. Gen. Robert Travis when it took off from Fairfield-Suisan Army Air Force Base. The plane crashed shortly after takeoff and its cargo, a Mark 4 nuclear weapon (10,000 pounds of high explosives, the detonator of the weapon) blew up killing Travis and 18 crew members, one of whom was my uncle. Only 25 years old he loved flying and was a self taught accomplished artist. I was only 4 years old at the time and have no memory of him, although I have a treasured oil painting he did of the California landscape near the base. I've often wondered how much he could have taught me about painting. I do know from my family that he was a sensitive and patriotic young man. Fairfield- Suisan was renamed in honor of Gen. Travis and is a major military air hub.
Wow!! I knew I recognized that name. Travis Air Force Base. Last time I was there, there were a lot of C-5 Galaxy heavy lifters around. Other side of the field, some B-52 bombers were around. Surrounded by layers of fencing and electronic motion sensing they used in those days. I knew even then in 1987, those were the nuclear armed ready bombers.
The pressurized cabin did not allow the B-29 to reach 31, 000 feet; the wings and engines allowed that. The B-17 could fly just as high, and the unpressurised P-47 and P-38 could fly even higher and did so on long escort missions. The pressurized cabin did allow the crew to fly in much more comfortable and less taxing conditions on long duration missions. Pressurization increases the efficiency of the crew, not the airplane.
Thank you for pointing that out
@@matthysjuys6884 It took nothing, but you're welcome.
Sometimes the comments are as informative as the video. Thank you.
@@FlyTyer1948 Thanks, I agree. The only reason I even look at this channel is to see the comments often made by viewers in response to the typically inaccurate or misrepresented information here. So I try to give a little back when I can.
If the crew is more efficient so will the plane be
My Dad was a B-29 mechanic based in Guam during the latter stages of the war. His specialty was welding of the landing gear systems, which, despite being robust, still took a beating that needed constant attention
I knew an old fellow, Mr Riley, that flew in B29's off of Guam, they might have known each other.
There are only two B-29's in flyable condition today. Fifi and Doc. Doc was recently restored to flyable condition in Wichita Kansas. Where it was manufactured over seventy years ago. It is currently based in a hanger besides Wichita's local municipal airport where the public can view it when it is not at air shows across the USA.
On 8/8/88 I flew into Wichita for work and during the drive to the office from the airport I saw Fifi and a couple other WWII aircraft flying overhead. Could not believe my eyes. Turned out is was the then-named Confederate Air Force in for a show at the Wichita airport.
Saw it at Sun N Fun this year. Truly a beautiful machine!
My mother (from Chicago) did the wiring for B-29's in Wichita and earned her pilots license while there.
When Japan signed surrender, apparently there was a fly-by of four hundred B-29s over Tokyo Bay as a show of force. I wonder if any footage exists?
FiFi is flown by the Commerative Airforce and is based along with a B 24 near Ellington Field south of Houston.
I got to expore the inside of FIFI (One of only 2 B-29s still flying) when it stopped over for a few days in Atlanta back in 2013. If you ever get the chance to go inside a B-29 DO IT! It is the coolest cockpit I have ever seen, so much space!
They had one in Arlington Texas and we got to go inside of it amazing ideas somewhere between 1965 and 1970 before I went into the Air Force 1970 to 1974
I got to see Fifi up close at a stop-over in Long Beach, CA back in 2010. However they weren't offering up tours of the inside of the plane that day... DURN!! Wish they had, as I would have jumped at the chance to see the inside of one of the great planes of all time. You were very fortunate.
I got to see Doc at Oshkosh this year. You never realize how amazing these planes are until youre right next to it.
Saw Fifi at the airport in Meridianville, AL. It was a tight fit to walk through it, but a cool plane.
I got to explore the inside of FIFI is its visits to Richmond VA in the 1980s and 1990s.
As far as I know it has not been to Richmond since.
My dad's cousin was an aircraft radio repairman stationed in Hawaii in WW2. One day he got called on to replace the radios in 2 B29s because they had the wrong frequency sets in them. It was only after the fact that he found out he had worked on the Enola Gay and Bockscar.
Holy crap that’s amazing
There was a reason these were in service for so long. A well-engineered design can be borderline timeless if it's executed well enough.
Wink wink, B52
@@insideoutsideupsidedown2218
Wink wink, Boeing.
The massive effort that went into each and every plane behind the scenes is just staggering and so often overlooked
I just saw a video that three quarters of the planes lost were due to accidents. Plane had under powered engines.
But why does the presenter keep saying Bombay when we all know that the Indians never had a heavy bomber in WW2?
@@DaveSCameron -- isn’t he saying bomb bay which is where the bombs are stored and released from.
What do you mean India? What does Bombay have to do with India?
@@calvinnickel9995 -- Bombay is in India.
My father was a waist gunner in a B-29 in Korea. It wasn't long before he was transferred to the A-26 as a gunner but he told me a lot of stories about flying in the B-29. He said that the computers that ran the remote gun system were located in a lead-lined well in the floor between the two gunners and that it was rather finicky but when it worked, it worked really well. It even allowed any other gunner to slave another stations guns to their gunsights and the 'master gunner' could take control of all the guns on the aircraft and concentrate fire on one target through his gunsight. The computer would not allow the guns to fire when traversing an area where the aircraft parts were in the line of fire. Pretty advanced for the day! I still have his silver gunner's wings. The Air Force quit issuing them sometime after Korea but my dad was issued his and he wore his with pride on his hat until he passed a few years ago. The B-29s were so rushed into production that there was a strip in Kansas made for them so that they could be ferried directly from the factory to this airstrip so they could be immediately refitted with all the upgrades and production changes that had happened since the aircraft was started construction.
In early 1945, B-29 bombers use to come to US army air base Vernam Field on training missions. My Grand mother remember them well as she use to opperate a shop in the village of Gimme-Me-Bit south of the base.
My father flew B-29's in the CBI theater and later from Tinian. His plane was the Nippon Nipper. He was the pilot. He went through 3 29's with that name. One wore out, the second burned up in a fueling accident and the third flew him
home.
Dad used to laugh and say it was the best three engine bomber he ever flew.
another my dad thing here.🤣🤣🤣
@@florencemodina6293
Another Florence the punk thing here💩💩💩
@@florencemodina6293 I guess you must have a 'daddy' thing eh
My dad was a B-29 mechanic during WWII. Luckily for him, he was station in Carswell Texas during the war. If the US hadn't dropped those bombs I'm sure he would have been transferred to the Pacific. I may not be here now if it weren’t for the A bombs.
Common misconception that the A-bombs ended the war. The Japanese military leaders couldn't care less if the US dropped 10 of them on Japan. They wanted to fight to the death. They were more afraid of the Russkie entry into the war because they knew the Russians would take no prisoners.
That is the tragedy of war.
Those bombs killed so many Japanese,but at the same time,saved the lives of so many US military personel.
At last,the only important thing is that your dad could survive.
I'm not sure, but I don't think the US Army would send aircraft mechanics to invade the beaches of Japan.
Or maybe he met your mom in Texas???
Lucky you 😂
here we go again with my dad..... well my dad is adolf hitler.🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
My Dad was a Tail Gunner / Munitions man , on the B-29 , and the repowered B-50 that was the same aircraft but had Turbo Prop engines. They flew these 2 types in the Korean War , and I treasure my Father's ARMY AIR CORPS Olive 1940's cut wool uniform and the attending pants , shirts and tie . God bless you Dad !! 🙏🏻
A fantastic aircraft, very much advanced for its time.
Which suffered from issues due to it being rushed into service, the engines were problematic to say the least.
"Unfortunately, the B-29 is a very good airplane." -- Empress of Japan in her diary.
@@craigs71
There's not a single aircraft that ANYONE flew in the war that didn't have problems like engine fires, not a single one, it just gets overly stressed about the B29, every single aircraft of the war was constantly being improved on with later variant's addressing issues that were designed into it from it's inception, same goes for engine's, there's not a single one that ended the war without refinements that happened along the line.
Yes the B29 had issues and yes it was pushed through development but had they not done that it would have been just another design that wasn't ready by the end of the war.
And if it wasn't for the B29 being ready they'd have had no way of delivering the bomb, despite some TH-cam videos and plenty of commentators claims in them the B29 was the ONLY aircraft capable of delivering the bomb, no other bomber was capable of carrying 20,000 lbs and fly at 300 MPH at 31,000 ft which is what was required for a bomber to escape the blast of the bomb, any other one and it'd have been a suicide mission for the crew.
There was a Douglas bomber that was being parallel developed in case things didn't work out with the B29 but it had even more issues some of which they gave up on and only a few saw service by the end of the war in an underdeveloped state that would have prohibited them from dropping the bomb also.
It was the most advanced aircraft in the world when it flew, it's defensive gun system with it's analog computer that provided a ballistic solution for the guns gave it a kill to loss ratio of 11.9 to 1 against enemy fighter's, the P51 only had an 11.0 to 1 loss ratio.
@@dukecraig2402 but the b-29 had a massive issue with it's engine, engine placement and cowl flaps, causing excessive amounts of drag, loss of lift, excessive oil leaks, fuel system issues, overheating problems and failures in opening/closing the cowl flaps due to it being electronic. sure the b-29 was a good plane but still had huge issues from its development being rushed and the poor design of the engine placement & the r3350 still not being mature enough, that actually may have caused majority of losses for the plane; the soviets even had found out about the cowl flap problems when reverse engineering the b-29. still a pretty cool plane though :)
No notice... Most confirmed kills ever..🏋️
Daaam
Yes. Two bomb strikes in particular...
@@colinvannurden3090 don’t forget the firestorm on Tokyo…
@@colinvannurden3090
The firestorm claimed more lives than the bombs.
I love planes, but who needs to joke about it's kill count. "🏋️" Civilian kill count. That's a weight to carry.
Technically the British had a heavy bomber (the Lancaster) capable of delivering the nuclear bombs with only moderate modifications. Their bomber already delivered the heaviest bombs ever dropped to that date. It would have been more risky both on a tactical and technical level (the Lancaster had a lower flight ceiling and would have had to be refueled in flight to return to base) but there was a backup option in case the B-29 wasn't ready by the time the bomb was.
Of course the Americans wanted to minimize military technology share with the British at the time despite the vast crucial contributions the Brits already made to the Manhattan Project.
(fun fact: Klaus Fuchs, who was the number one spy for the USSR to build their version of the bomb was a British send to the project and the American bomb also wouldn't have existed without him as he was the one who calculated the necessary explosive distribution without which the implosion mechanism for Fat Man could not work. A reason he was spared the death penalty was because he also contributed to British nuclear bomb development)
My grandfather flew in the 504th bomb group in the "Crow`s Kids". His 29 was shot down while leading a mission over Nagoya. After spending 2 and 1/2 days on the water, he and seven other men from his group were rescued by the American sub, USS Trepang . He was within sight of land the whole time.
So glad that you've explained the most expensive Boeing during WWII. It's my favorite aircraft manufacturer from the slow start, to weird prototypes, towards going to war and pushed on to Vietnam, and making the biggest passenger aircraft.
Until a number of years ago, I would've absolutely pegged The Manhattan Project as the most costly undertaking by the United States during WWII. When I learned it was the Superfortress, that really stunned me.
Don’t forget that there were other countries involved in the Manhattan project too.
@@duanepigden1337 Yes. There were.
To this day I get emotional when I remember that in the 90's my father gave me a Monogram model in the 1/48 scale of the B-29 as a gift, I remember it as if it were today of him opening the trunk of the car and me coming across that gigantic gray box!
1/48 scale, is O scale in model trains so that B-29 must have been Huge!
Was it a built up model or a kit?
Mark from Melbourne Australia
@@markfryer9880 hello how are you? It is an assembly kit, I only assembled it at the turn of the millennium (almost 10 years later, there were many kits in the queue, it's been my hobby since I was 7 years old, I'm almost 50), I spent almost 2 years to assemble it and is still kept in my house, 90cm long and 66cm in wingspan. Fortunately, my house is big and I can keep them out of the dust, especially the ones that were a gift from my late father. Greetings from Brazil.
When Japan signed surrender, apparently there was a fly-by of four hundred B-29s over Tokyo Bay as a show of force. I wonder if any footage exists?
二战时期B-29在中国留下了它的足迹！感激所有在中国战区参战的盟军！
Japan: ha, our fighters can down all of your bombers!
B29: bonjour
GORLAMI!
Say hello to my little friend?
A B29 was attacked by a large group of Japanese fighters. The B29 jettisoned its bombs poured on all the power it could muster and climbed. It shot down 17 (yes SEVENTEEN) Japanese fighters before escaping. This was quoted in a book authored by a Japanese pilot.
Don’t be sure, if that numbers is not accurate, sometimes those stories tell some bullshit. I know B-29 is effective, but not that effective.
Vero Beach, 1992: There I am flying my 2 meter sailplane at the club field in Vero Beach, north of the airport at the fairgrounds. I had a bunch of other FlightSafety Academy pilots and mechanics around me, along with my best friend Roy Matthews. He was watching me fly the glider and I was about to hand the Airtronics control box to him since I was to teach him to fly RC when I heard a DC-3 approaching the field, apparently pretty low. I said to Roy:
"Hang on a second, there's a DC-3 or something coming over"
About 15 seconds later:
Roy: "That's FiFi! Holy shit!!" he said, to which I turned my attention from my aircraft to the the airplane coming over the field, and noticed not anything other than indeed, FiFi, at about 1000 feet, coming over the trees at the south of our field and heading north in V3, the VFR airway just west of the Vero Beach airport. This was about 4 miles north, so out of ATA, or class C airspace.
I immediately wracked her hard over and dove toward the ground; The little glider probably hit 45 mph since I was at 400-500 feet and I think FiFI was around 1000 feet; FiFi flew past with the engines roaring and it sounded so GOOD that I was distracted! The glider didn't care, it descended on it's own down to about 150 feet and recovered on it's own and I brought it back around and just landed.
Holy shit! But I will add that there is NOTHING like the sound of four 18 cylinder engines firing like that! GOD DAMN that airplane sounded GOOD!
Good comment except damning God who helped many pilots make it home safely.
We're so lucky here in Connecticut, the new england air museum has a B29. What an absolutely beautiful machine. From the cockpit to the rear gunners seat is pressurized. There's a tube that goes through the Bomb bay that connects the front to the rear.
Pima Air Museum also has a wonderful example, plus a B50 which is a super B29 with 28 cylinder engines.
No it's not pressurized "all the way through", it's divided into compartments with the tail gunners compartment separate from the other one's, to get to it the tail gunner had to wear a "walk around bottle" and crawl back into the tail gun section, then after securing an airtight door on the bulkhead he could pressurize the compartment.
Also, and most people don't know this, when the crew "prepared for action" they put on oxygen masks and all the compartments were depressurized to eliminate the chance of an explosive decompression in the event the aircraft was hit.
There's a new channel on TH-cam called WW2 US Bombers, he's absolutely the best source for information on US bombers from the war and he only uses credible sources for the information in his videos, if you want to learn the truth about WW2 bombers instead of hearing all the usual myths like "The Norden bombsight was inaccurate and a waste of time" check out his videos.
One of the most significant reason why Soviets couldn't successfully copy B-29 was... the lack of tools scaled in imperial units. They had only metric ones. Due to this difference, nothing was working as it should and once they made "conversion" to metric (by approximating measurements to metric scale), it didn't fit as it should, which resulted that TU-4 was too heavy and engines were too week. Overall, the technology stealing was a complete disaster which wasted their resources and time, before a suitable Soviet made plane was designed and made.
The Soviet Union was NEVER the US’s true ally. It was simply a case of “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” type situation. We aided them so they could defeat the Germans but the Soviets were never actually grateful for that aid. But letting the Soviets fall to Germany would have been more dangerous at the time due to the Soviet Union’s proximity to the US. We couldn’t let the Germans control Soviet Russia. The Soviets have never been bold enough to attack the US, even though they have the proximity to, because they’ve never really had the technology or resources to engage the US in a conventional ground war. Nobody wanted nuclear mutually assured destruction. That’s why the Cold War went on for so long. And the US won that! We won the Cold War because we basically outspent, bankrupted, and ruined the Soviet economy. They spent so much money trying to maintain their military readiness, associate states, and trying to keep up with the US’s technological developments, that it wasn’t sustainable. They fell apart.
You are delusional. It was western thinking to let NAzis and Soviets fight to death which lessend soviet leadership trust in US to almoust zero. Churchill and Roosevelt were intruguing behind Stalin's back all the time.
And then came infamous Patton with his nazi supporting speech.
Nor Britian and US were never a friends to Russia, trying to take advantage when it was weak and partion it. Thats why we have so much nuclear weapons. If we die, you will die too.
Several million Russian dead would disagree.
If we had not aided the Soviet Union Germany may very well have acquired the necessary resources to become a superpower.
The Soviet Union, the United States, the British Empire each were able to draw upon the resources of continents and the world sufficient to achieve and maintain super power status.
Germany never had that access to resources. If Germany had defeated the Soviet Union and expanded to the Urals then history would have been very different.
American and British Empire aid enabled the Soviet Union to stay in the fight until the Soviets could fully draw upon their resources to defeat Germany while we drained enough German resources to bring victory years sooner.
I wonder how many millions the russians bent us over and gave us the dry one on the lend lease
@@lynnwood7205 Of course Lend Lease did helped a lot. But americans always fighting with others hands, and WW2 wasnt an exception. At some point US should have joined the fight or it will be facing Nazi germany on its own.
I do not see a good will there, just business. SU lost 30 millions, US 500 thousands. Nice bargain for defeating such a strong enemy.
What US miscalculated is Stailn's will. SU rebuilt itself from literal ruins in mere years, not decades.And its army which became stronger than Axis combined.
Otherwise US would ever helped so much, its just not their nature. Like they did with their british "friend" which lost its colonies after WW2 and became a little more than a colony itself.
One of my late uncle (on dad's side) was a tail gunner of a B-29 during the Pacific Theater. I learned this when in the mid 1960's when I got the scale model of the B-29 (can't remember if it's Revell or Monogram) and when he saw it one day, gave it a long look and then told me this (pointing at the tail gunner's station) is where he was stationed during his missions. The impact of what he said at the time didn't hit me until years later.
I used to live in Ohio and I visited the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton numerous times. It is there that Bockscar is housed. It is a really beautiful airplane and an amazing piece of history. I was fortunate that I got to see that aircraft several times.
The Enola Gay was manufactured at the Martin plant in Omaha, NE, where my grandpa was head of security! When I interviewed Paul Tibbets, I told him about grandpa, and he said, "Good work from that plant!"
My friend was a B29 pilot during the war. They had just dropped their bombs and had closed the Bombay doors when smoke filled the cockpit. He got a pair of wire cutters from the radio operator and went to find what was burning. Found a box and started cutting wires into it. They flew back without electrical power following other bombers. Boeing staff figured out what failed. It was the voltage regulator. Other b29s had been lost without any radio calls from the crews.
Fun fact: The design of the B-29s cockpit served as inspiration to the man who later designed the millennium falcon from Star Wars.
Boeing sure ain't what it used to be man. Darn shame. We've had C-17's come through with trash and tools from the manufacturer
My Dad was lucky… he entered the Army Air Force (which became the US Air Force) in 1946… he was a B-29 mechanic and flew sometimes on the ‘hurricane hunter’ missions… then got ou of the Air Force in 1949. So, he was lucky to miss both WW2 and the Korean War.
He was lucky when it came to the hurricanes also, just ask anyone in Florida right now.
The crews should of destroyed the bombers instead of letting the Russians have them.
How? with screwdriver? Also pilots did not expect that Russian would steal the plane
In the end, it worked out. How? We made something better anyway. We won the Cold War by making the Soviet Union spend so much money on maintaining their military and trying to keep up with our tech innovations that it bankrupted them. As a result, the Soviet Union fell apart. It was a win win for the US and we avoided nuclear war! In the end, them stealing the plane didn’t even matter and it was motivation for the US to be better than the Soviets. Who cares?
@@manjelos Guess you're right.
The US Government should have foresaw the future advisarial relationship we would have with the Russians. It was very obvious at the time, from what I've read. Between the Tu-4, and the British just GIVING the soviets a goddamn jet engine... it probably made the cold war last 20 years longer than it had to. All over naivety in understanding the motivations of the goddamn Russians (no offense, it's anti-russian govt not anti- russian people).
Charles Bronson was a gunner on B-29s.
I've seen one at an airshow, just one of it's engines running gives you chills...
l salute Boeing for their foresight. l salute the pilots, crew, and ground support personnel. l salute the American taxpayer that funded the END of the war and all the stuff that led up to it. l salute you America for creating the free world l have lived in these 71 years and wish l had been born in time to do my part and eternally grateful l didnt have to.
Well said. The will of the USA saved us in Western Europe from Stalinist dystopia. I'm 70 and I've never had to hide from bombs or carry a rifle thanks to America. Her fundamental role in rescuing and then guaranteeing the life of Western liberty is on a par with any world changing event in history. I do not excuse some of her atrociously misconceived foreign policies post-1945 -but at the same time I not forget to whom I owe my right to do so.
A former coworker was a pilot in the Atomic squadron. They would practice the escape maneuvers
. After each session all 4 engines had to be replaced, every day.
Thanks Dark Skies for the great documentary video on my favorite WW II heavy bomber!
These short documentaries are so cool.
Thanks for your efforts buddy
I always enjoy your uploads. I’m a big fan of WW2 aircraft and this always brings a nice insight to models I build.
My Mother worked on the B-29 Her and a bunch of other girls assembled the tail section. She was one of the first of girls called:
Rosie the Rivet'rs.
My mother was eva braun.she is with adolf hitler.🤣🤣🤣
That was the ancient time when Boeing was able to deliver something that works.
Except it didn’t. Rushed into service with multiple known teething troubles. Guess priorities were elsewhere at the time.
They still do ! How many Boeing products are flying at this very second to and fro around the world safely and efficiently ..
The 707 was an iconic aircraft and evenly the 747 "Jumbo".
When Boeing moved to the aviation industry Capitol of Chicago Everyone knew the accountants and MBA’s won and the engineers were
Back to the normal position of managements janitors!
Ahhh yes the good old days before they perfected their monetization lower expectation and stretch time till completion technology.
Small bit of history, The B-29's based in China were a huge drain on resources for the amount of bombs dropped on Japanese targets. The Japanese had blockaded or captured ALL the Chinese port cities forcing the Logistic trail to flow thru Burma. Once the Japanese captured Rangoon and cut the ground road "Burma Road" the logistics were flown from India over the "Hump". Fuel, Bombs, replacement parts etc were a trickle to the bombers based in China. The B-29's sat many weeks idle waiting for fuel and bombs to be stockpiled from the air route delivery system over the "Hump". Additionally, the B29 bases were subject to attack by the Japanese Army. Once the Marianna Islands were captured by the USA in 1944, the China based B-29s were withdrawn and located to Guam/Saipan/Tinian
The Kee-Bird was a recent loss of a B29. She was almost salvaged but a generator that was left in the tail section caught the plane on fire.
I watched that salvage in a 1 hour documentary on TV in the UK. The work they put in and the skill involved was amazing. Watching it burn at the end due to a stupid mistake that never should have happened was heart breaking.
@@owensmith7530 what's sad is that the generator was caused by one man spilling fuel and leaving it running. The plane was left in a icy tomb for years until that one guy showed up.
Brilliant as always. It must have been a good feeling for the boys flying the B29 that they were safe from Japanese attack. Not such a good feeling for the people on the ground under them.
If it's not Boeing I'm not going. A particular phrase I have heard over many years. Good or bad, Boeing survived while many others failed.
I got to see Bockscar at the USAF Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH. It was thrilling, yet incredibly sad and solemn, to see her sitting there. I pray these terrible weapons never have to be used again, but I am proud that it was my countrymen who ended that terrible war, and did what needed to be done.
I always thought it was an impressive aircraft. Along of course with many others
USA almost had to use a Lancaster bomber to deliver the bomb.
Thanks for the video. I've heard and read this story several times, but one aspect that I have never heard addressed is the following. The army issued two contracts for the needed plane type. Besides the Boeing B-29, there was the Consolidated B-32. Two contracts were issued because the army didn't know which company would be able to produce its respective airplane first. As things occurred, the B-32s did enter the war in the Pacific in the final weeks of the war. What I have never been able to discover is, if the B-29 development was the most expensive program of the war, how expensive was the B-32 program? No one ever talks about the B-32. Thanks.
It is really not surprising at all that the cost of the B-29 surpassed that of the atomic bomb. When learning of this fact, people don't have a clear idea of the material comparisons between the two. Having built just under 4,000 planes, the first ones were costing $970K each. By the time the last ones were built, they cut production time down and they were only costing barely $500K. Four thousand planes is a lot of material, especially when you consider one B32 cost $822K and it was not even close to the same plane even before the bugs were worked out of the B29. Without including the R&D, that's $3Bil when averaging out the unit costs, just for the finished hardware ready to fly.
I read recently that the engines were prone to overheating & there were several fires. It was a longstanding issue not fixed until towards the end of the war in the Pacific
That happens when you need stuff "RIGHT F***ING NOW" in a crisis.
Prone
GeorgePdogg. Nicely done. I heard something similar, but your detail was educational, Thank You.
Not only did they build the B-29 they built the B-32 as a backup in case the B-29 didn't work out
Overlooked is the fact that the B-29 fire bomb raid on Tokyo in March 1945 was so horrific that more people were actually killed than the deaths from both atomic bombs added together. Granted the incendiary raid took an entire fleet of B-29's to accomplish. General Curtis LeMay was actually very irritated that the atomic bomb missions were given precedence over his plans. Gen LeMay had already put plans in motion to move all bombers of RAF Bomber Command and the USAAF 8th and 9th AIr Forces to Okinawa so that massive "3 fire bomb raids per day" could be flown on Japan. In retrospect, the two atomic bombs were far more humane and less destructive to Japan than General LeMay's plans for continuous around the clock massive fire bomb raids on Japan. Imagine the horrific death and destruction that 1000+ 4-engine bombers could inflict, flying 3 times per day with incendiary bombs.
I like how you make it seem like the B17 was the only large bomber the US had in europe, the B 24 gets overlooked despite vastly outnumbering the B17.
The engine looks excellent. Indeed, radial engines were and still are the best option for airplanes. They can, also, be stacked one into another.
No they can’t. The Germans tried this on the He-177 and lost many to engine fires before they turned it into a four nacelle design.
Fires were an enemy of the B-29 as well in the early days due to insufficient cooling.
Turbine engines are 100% superior in every way except fuel consumption and cost.
@@calvinnickel9995 They can. Stacking engines has been used, successfully, even, in WW1. This is one of the main advantage of radial engines. All crankshafts get connected to make one engine out of many. Another advantage is a better air cooling because of the radial configuration. Of course, stacked engines must be cooled, which, is elementary, mainly at 10km, where, the temperature is much lower, even, than on Everest. Air cooling is preferable, yet, water cooling or combined cooling can be used too. The engine behind, best, be supplied with air from a dedicated duct. This is true for the superchargers, too, in case there are more than one. All nations, probably, except the US managed to use them well.
What a great documentary!
One of the Pathfinder pilots for D-Day said that the B-17 Bomber cost about $100,000 , but all of these sophisticated electronics inside it cost over half a million dollars! But the mechanical foibles of the B29 are not overstated here, and I've heard many accounts from mechanics who worked on them that the engines were right on the cusp of being overstressed and they didn't even bother trying to rebuild them, they just swapped in fresh units if they started to show trouble after 50 hours in the air and the take out units were scrapped.
You kinda missed Air (Army) General Curtis LeMay. He not only changed the altitude that the bombers came over Japan, but changed the ordinance to incendiary. Low altitude put the bombers within reach of Japanese fighters. Wasn't all just flying high and escaping the Japanese pilots.
10:53 "Only aircraft able to do it" See on TH-cam "Hiroshima 1945 - The British Atomic Attack" at 6.35 RAF Lancaster Bombers were considered.
That story was made up by Mark Felton.There were no Black Lancaster's and the Lancaster could not drop an Atomic bomb.The Lancaster could have dropped an Atomic bomb on Germany but the shock wave would crush the Lancaster like a tin can.There was no way for the Lancaster to drop one on Japan because it did not have the range.
@@jerryg53125 I suppose he made the one about how When Britain 'Nuked'America....Twice! then?
Fifi in particular should be. I was lucky to see her in person. I can't imagine what it takes to maintain her these days, compared to the jets we have now.
I was lucky enough to do a walk through and ride in FIFI when it was doing tours on the east coast
At around 2:15 the video claims that the reason for the B-29 to fly at high altitude was to increase its range. I don't believe that. The reason WWII bombers flew at high altitude was to make them more difficult targets for enemy AAA and intercepting fighters, not for fuel efficiency as with turbojet aircraft.
Excerpt from the official XXI Bomber Command Combat Crew Manual: "Ordinarily the climb to high altitudes will not be started until after several hours of operation at low altitudes. As the fuel consumption is highest at altitude it is important that minimum altitudes be maintained as long as possible. This should be the primary consideration in the operation of the aircraft prior to starting the climb.”
This video makes many other unsubstantial statements, such as the claim that the B-29 could not be intercepted by Japanese fighters. That is not really accurate; it wasn't easy for all of them, but if they planned the intercept right they could do it. The B-29 was a much more advanced aircraft in many ways, but it did not have a higher service ceiling than the B-17.
A note on the engines, Boeing employed engineers from the Eaton corporation mechanical division to help stop the engines from fading and burning out on the return run home. The solution a single engineer from Eaton corp came up with was replacable titanium cylinder sleeves. This was the single most advanced egineering feat on the entire plane next to the pressurized cabin and is also one of the most forgotten and lost to time, and it ended up saving many of these massive and costly planes and their crew from crashing on the home run. This idea was proposed and initially explained to the army and Boeing by a man that worked closely with an engineer on the initial engine redesign as a mechanical and metallurgical specialist to stop overheating that caused engine failures and was brought onto the project completely after speaking with army and Boeing engineers. My grandfather, Jack O. Harvey, proposed the final piece of the B-29 that made it the truly unstoppable bomber it was and helped ensure they made it home still running, many of which still run and fly to this day, along with countless crew members aboard them during the war
You mentioned the B-17 many times, but not once the B-24 of which more were made and had an equal if not greater contribution to the war. It always seems these quasi-documentaries always seem to ignore the B-24 Liberator.
The atomic bomb program cost $2 billion.
Each B-29 cost about $600,000.
The 6-plane mission that dropped the bomb would be $3.6 million worth of B-29s.
I read an article about how the Russians flew their replica B29 in an Airshow in the late 40s. Then come to be told they had more problems than we had. Lost many in the development stage so much they never used it.
Proud sun of a right side gunner on a B29.
Another one of the most beautiful aircraft of WWII next to the P-57 "Mustang" and P-61 "Black Widow"!
P-57?
He ment P-47 Thunderbolt, the P-51 is a delicate hanger queen. 😉
My grandpa was Lindbergh's limo driver and handyman in the 30's. When war broke out, Lindbergh sent a letter to the Army Air Corps recommending my gramps for the Army Air Corps citing his skill as a driver and mechanic. As a result, Gramps didn't end up in the infantry but instead served with the USAAF bomber corps. Ironically, while Lindbergh was trying to get gramps to a safer post than being infantry, the bomber command suffered some of the heaviest losses among US forces. Lucky for me, Grandpa was stationed in the Florida Keys and flew anti-submarine escort over the mid Atlantic. Probably in a Mitchel or Liberator. No clue if he ever dropped any bombs.
Thanks for all the short stories and the folks sharing stories as well !
Such great videos! Love your content. Keep up the great work!
this is one of my favorite channels because of the blend of the true factual wossnames with the theme of a conspiratorial air
If anybody has the opportunity to see Fifi the B-29 go for it it's beautiful.
Amazing how times have changed, with the US now supporting Japan against the Chinese.
The constant engine issues were only resolved after WW II concluded. By the time of the Korean War (1950-53) the B-29 was outmatched by Soviet fighter jets.
And the United States was replacing them with the B50 (updated and revised B29 that was used until 1965), B36 (went into service in 1948), B47 (went into service in 1951). So to claim the B29 was outmatched in 1950-53, is to ignore the other bombers being used.
I remember a documentary about a B29 that crashed landed in the arctic years and years ago and was buried in ice.
It was discovered recently and was dug up and prepared to be flown back to the States, but it caught fire when they tried to start the engines….
Too bad, I think it’d have been a great find to put on display.
Kee Bird, i believe , a B50.. the "rescuers" sloppily forgot to secure the putt-putt starter engine , spilt fuel, and the B50 was lost forever..a bunch of bozos just laughed at the burning plane. :(
@@androidemulator6952
So much for history
Seen FiFi at a airfield a few years back, Beautiful aircraft. Such a wonder of its time.
My biggest plastic model kitset in 1/72 scale, what a wingspan 😎🥝🇳🇿
Good video, well presented. I did not realise for many years the significance of the Airfix kit being named 'Eddie Allen'....the test pilot killed in the crash of the second prototype I believe....(if I am wrong I do not mind an update by the way!)
2:39 those experiments turned the Model 307 the first Boeing pressurized airliner in 1940.
Now you need to do a video on the spare to the B-29.
My name is Theora Roden Olson and at the mark approx. 10.55 is a photo of a man painting markings on LITTLE BOY. That man is my father who was on the team that built the bomb. Can you tell me where you found the picture? My father, Theodore Roden, is gone now, but I know my sisters would be also interested in its information. I love your Dark adventures and information, but most of all your voice captures my attention from beginning to end of the presentation. Thank you for your hard work and research skills.
No mention of the Boeing Model 307? The story of the B-29 is INCOMPLETE without it.
On a per device basis the B-29 was somewhat less expensive than Fatman and little boy. The planes cost roughly $750,000.00 each while the bombs were almost $1,000,000,000.00 each. I have always liked the B-29, BTW.
And how do you figure that each bomb cost one billion dollars? That's certainly not the material and assembly cost for one bomb. If you're using material and assembly costs for the B29 - then you have to use the same calculation for the bombs. The total development cost for the B29 was $2+ billion as was the development cost for the atomic bombs.
So last week I flew on FiFi the B29 in the thumbnail worth every penny and cool af.
Got to go through Fifi at an air show, very cool to see first hand.
Well done, you hit "moreover" by the 30s mark.
Tu-95 is its latest development, still buzzing the UK on a regular basis with modern cruise-missiles in store.
Those modern "boomerang" missles work wonders.
Just testing the response times ay?
Once obsolete as bombers, they were extensively used as tankers for aerial refueling, especially during korean war.
I met the photographer flying aboard Bockscar that took those infamous pictures of the Enola Gay dropping the first bomb. I believe he is still alive living in a cheap manufactured home in Florida.
Excellent documentary, thank you for sharing it.
One B 29 did go to Europe on its way to South East Asia was diverted to Britain. Where it had a short stage for propaganda...
EXCELLENT Plane and Video, much appreciated...
Such beautiful and at the same time such deadly ingenuity.
I'm really surprised that this account didn't discuss Curtis Lemay's decision to fly low-altitude bombing missions because the extreme high altitude that early missions were flying did not result in accurate bombing. Lemay also switched to napalm bombs as a way of starting firestorms. In other words the high altitude capability and the large bomb bays were not the significant feature of the B-29 in the end. It's ability to fly long distances with relative crew comfort clearly was it's most important feature.
A lovely little film.
Such a shame that it perpetuates the fantasy that the atomic bombs alone brought the war to an end. There were several factors involved in Japan's surrender on the 15th of August. One of those factors was indeed the American bombers' capabilities. A second factor was the USSR massing troops and materiel for an invasion of Manchuria. A third was the carefully-worded surrender demands that implied (but did not outright state, because that would have violated an agreement between America and its allies) that the Emperor would remain in some official capacity after a Japanese surrender.