The airliner pilot who gets to fly World War Two's biggest bomber

[mahatmakanejeeves]

The airliner pilot who gets to fly World War Two's biggest bomber

10 hours ago
Stephen Dowling


(Credit: Scott Slocum)

The Commemorative Air Force in the US flies the only two airworthy Boeing B-29s, the most expensive weapon of World War Two. One pilot tells BBC Future what it feels like to fly them.

They are two of the most celebrated aircraft still flying today. The two Boeing B-29s flown by the Commemorative Air Force (CAF) in the US are the last airworthy examples of nearly 4,000 built in the mid-1940s, the largest bomber in the world at that time and a design which pushed aviation technology to the limit. ... The aircraft, nicked "Fifi" and "Doc" by the CAF, take part in airshows across the US during the summer, where aviation fans can pay to ride along in 30-minute-long demonstration flights.

The Boeing B-29 was the most advanced bomber in the world when it entered service in 1945: it was the first mass-produced aircraft to have pressurised compartments for the crew, and it could fly higher and further than any other aircraft thanks to its four enormous engines. These engines also helped it fly almost as fast as the fighter planes of the time. Designing and building it cost more than the atomic bombs that B-29s would eventually drop on Japan to end World War Two.

Bringing the B-29 into service was a colossal industrial project that at times overwhelmed Boeing. Its engines were powerful but temperamental, and keeping them in line required the full-time attention of a dedicated flight engineer, who kept a beady eye on engine temperatures to avoid the engines catching fire from overheating. Even getting a B-29 airborne for its mission over Japan required great effort in the humid air of tropical airfields. So, 80 years after the B-29 helped bring the world's most costly conflict to a close, what is it like to fly one now?

{snip}

[underpants]

1. Fascinating 👀

[eppur_se_muova]

2. I saw a video doc not too long ago on the *computerized* fire control system ...

Analog computers in the B-29 central fire control system made corrections in three main areas to accurately aim the aircraft’s guns: ballistics, lead, and parallax.

Ballistics is the behavior of a projectile once it leaves the muzzle of a gun. The two main considerations when calculating ballistics are the pull of gravity and the resistance from air pressure that could push the bullet back, which can greatly change in varying conditions

Lead refers to the compensation for how much a target moves in the time it takes a bullet to reach it. To hit a fast moving target, guns may have to be aimed as much as 200 yards ahead of the enemy.

Parallax error occurs because the angle to the target from the gunner’s sight is different from the angle to the target from a turret located several yards away. The computer calculates the parallax error and ensures that the guns fire at the target sighted by the gunner. The computers made these three corrections so that a gunner could simply point his sight at the target he wished to hit.

?itok=r1TFfTHv

?

more: https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/defending-superbomber-b-29s-central-fire-control-system

[progressoid]

3. The video linked in the article is good too.

&t=777s

There is a wartime instructional film which shows the flight-check routine for a B-29 crew; this is very much a truncated version, and the film lasts more nearly 40 minutes. "I would usually plan 45 minutes in between, you know, butts in the seat, everybody strapped in, intercom on, ready to talk between then and when I can take off," says Haskin. The B-29's cockpit and flight engineer's station certainly looks like something from a different age, banks of switches and levers of bewildering complexity.