AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2011 - 67

So precious and critical was the sextant on this flight that the navigator, Theodore Van Kirk, held and cushioned it in his lap. At 130 mph Tibbets gingerly raised the nose just enough to elongate the nosewheel strut. The Superfortress sniffed the tropical night sky and consumed almost the entire 8,500-foot-long runway reaching 155 mph. At 02:45 local time on August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay pushed the ground away and lifted thunderously into the darkness for a rendezvous with destiny. The Boeing B–29 Superfortress first flew on December 30, 1942, and was the largest, most technically advanced bomber of the war. It could fly 3,200 miles at more than 300 mph while carrying a 20,000-pound payload. Its efficient, unusually slender wings enabled it to penetrate deep into the heart of enemy territory at 36,000 feet, above the effectiveness of antiaircraft fire. Defensive weaponry consisted of five remotely controlled, electrically driven gun turrets. The guns were fired by gunners who had no direct contact with their weapons. Each turret had two .50-caliber machine guns, and the tail turret also had a 20-mm cannon. The airplane carried two tons of ammunition ready for firing. Pneumatically operated bomb-bay doors opened in less than a second and closed in three, reducing the time that open doors slowed the airplane during a bomb run. The forward and center fuselage compartments were pressurized (then called “cabin supercharging”). They were connected with a 30-foot-long, crawl-through tube above the bomb bays. The tail gunner’s position also was pressurized but he could not enter or leave his station while it was under pressure. With a maximum pressure differential of 6.6 psi, the B–29 could maintain an 8,000-foot cabin altitude up to 30,000 feet. From 30,000 to 40,000 feet, cabin altitude increased to 12,000 feet. The B–29 was depressurized during combat, and the crew used oxygen masks and electrically heated flight suits. Almost everything aboard the Superfortress was operated electrically, including the landing gear, flaps, propellers, and cowl flaps. Electrical systems were considered less vulnerable to enemy fire than hydraulic systems. The airplane had six enginedriven generators plus a small auxiliary

power unit (APU), a 15-horsepower, two-cylinder engine (called the “puttputt”) that drove a seventh generator. Only the brakes were hydraulic. The APU provided electrical power for starting those huge engines. It also was used while taxiing to power the electric hydraulic pump for the brakes. Otherwise, braking could drain the battery. Each twin-row, 18-cylinder Wright Cyclone R-3350-23 radial engine developed 2,200 horsepower, and each had an internal supercharger fed by a pair of turbochargers providing sea-level power up to 33,000 feet. Although 3,970 “Superforts” were built, none was airworthy in 1966 when the Commemorative Air Force (nee Confederate Air Force) began looking to acquire one for its collection of World War II aircraft. The Pentagon said that none were in inventory or storage. In 1971, however, a pilot reported sighting what looked like B–29s parked in the desert near China Lake, California. The military said, however, that it would not part with any of these derelict aircraft, even though they had been abandoned for 17 years. CAF supporter Victor Neils Agather spearheaded an acquisition effort and enlisted the aid of then-Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater. The military relented, and the CAF was permitted to take its pick of the lot. Aircraft 44-6207 was selected, a bomber that originally had been delivered to the U.S. Army Air Corps on July 31, 1945, and removed from service only 11 years later. In nine weeks, CAF volunteers cleaned out nests of desert critters living in the aircraft; replaced fuel, oil, and hydraulic lines; had new parts made; cannibalized parts from other aircraft; and restored necessary systems. The airplane was ferried to CAF headquarters in Harlingen, Texas, on August 3, 1971. There it underwent three years of painstaking and expensive restoration requiring thousands of man-hours provided by dedicated volunteers. The large “A” emblazoned on the vertical fin honors Vic Agather, and the B–29 was christened FIFI in honor of his wife. Two years later, the CAF invited Brig. Gen. Paul Tibbets to requalify as an aircraft commander aboard its B–29. In 2005 FIFI’s engines began “making metal,” and the difficult decision was made to ground the airplane and reengine it with cooler-running hybrids
AOPA PILOT • 67 • SEPTEMBER 2011

AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2011