When Boeing designed the B-17 "Flying Fortress" in the mid-thirties, the aim was to meet the United States Army Air Corps request for a very-heavy, very-long-range bomber capable of flying 5000 miles. Though the B-17 demonstrated impressive strength, firepower, speed, bomb load, range and altitude capability, it was not until the B-29 Superfortress flew that the original specifications were met.
The B-29 from the beginning was a producer of "firsts" unbelievably employing some of the methodologies and successes of the later NASA Lunar and Space Shuttle programs. Manufacturing facilities were already constructed before the first prototype had even been completed, a very risky and potentially extremely costly venture. The Superfortress was the heaviest production aircraft built at that time, was the first to have pressurized crew compartments (including the tail gunner's section), it also had centralized and computerized control of all its guns except the tail gunner's. It had the capacity to carry a 20,000-pound bomb load. The B-29 could also fly 5,830 miles, with a top airspeed of 365 miles per hour and could cruise at 40,000 feet altitude. Even though the B-29 was designed to be a high-altitude weapons platform, it had it greatest successes at low altitude, in the firebombing of Japan. Low flying b-29s laid waste to most of the militarily important cities in Japan.
Eventually, the B-29 became the first bomber to carry and drop atomic bombs, first on Hiroshima (by "Enola Gay" commanded by Capt. Robert Lewis and Col. Paul Tibbetts) and then Nagasaki (by "Bockscar", commanded by Maj. Charles Sweeny). It could be said that they were the first and only aircraft to effectively end a world war.
The B-29 had four 2,200 hp Wright Cyclone 18 turbocharged radial piston engines. Empty it weighed in at 70,140 lbs with a maximum takeoff weight of 124,000 lbs. It was 99 ft long, wing span was 141 ft and at its tallest point, 29 ft 7 in. Maximum speed of 358 mph, with a cruising speed of 230 mph.
After the original B-29, there were a number of variants produced, beginning with the B-29A with increased wing span, the B-29B which had automatic, radar-guided tail guns, the RB-29 for photo-reconnaissance work, two that were designed as in-flight refueling tankers, the KB-29M and the KB-29P.
The USN also used several as anti-submarine testbeds. There were a number of B-29s loaned to the RAF from 1950-1958, which they renamed the Washington. The Russian TU-4 was a near-exact copy of the B-29.
The Superfortresses stayed around long enough to participate in the Korean War, where they flew more than 20,000 sorties in which they dropped nearly 200,000 tons of bombs on North Korean targets. It was finally retired from service with the USAF in 1960. Of the 3,970 B-29s built, there is only one still flying. This lone airworthy survivor tours the eastern US one summer, the western states the other year with the Commemorative Air Force, as a part of its "Ghost Squadron" of WWII aircraft.
One of the pilots flying the CAF's B-29 said of flying the big bird: "The words "ponderous", "heavy" and "clumsy" immediately came to mind. The airplane is a living, breathing demonstration of adverse yaw, for if you crank the ailerons over hard (the yoke rotates a full 180 degrees, for leverage), the nose sluggishly and ponderously swings the other way first, then the airplane sort of wallows around in more or less the desired direction. Rudder is needed. No, I mean RUDDER is REALLY needed and lots of it! With a hefty aileron input and a hard push on the rudder, the airplane will roll fairly briskly for such a large machine with absolutely no flight control boost of any kind, not even flying tabs. There is no subtlety of any kind when maneuvering this beast! It is the largest airplane I know of with no hydraulic boost and no flying tabs".
Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Aviation