X-Nico

2 unusual facts about Boeing KB-29 Superfortress


Boeing KB-29 Superfortress

The refuelling systems were developed and installed by Flight Refuelling Ltd, at Tarrant Rushton in the United Kingdom.

The KB-29P was operated by 420 Air Refueling Squadron based at RAF Sculthorpe Norfolk during the mid-1950s.


1503d Air Transport Group

At the time the runway was unusable due to heavy bombardment during 1944 and 1945 by the USAAF XXI Bomber Command B-29 Superfortress bombers which heavily damaged the Tachikawa Aircraft manufacturing facilities, of which the airfield was a part of prior to the occupation.

312th Aeronautical Systems Group

The 312th trained in the reserve from, 1947, being redesignated as the 312th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy), and equipped with B-29 Superfortresses.

427th Air Refueling Squadron

The unit re-equipped with Boeing KB-50 Superfortresses in 1959, which provided greater speed to refuel jet aircraft.

429th Air Refueling Squadron

The 429th was re-equipped with Boeing KB-50 Superfortresses in 1958.

49th Air Division

Beginning in 1947, the 49th served in the Reserve for two years as a B-29 Superfortress organization, during which time it was redesignated as an Air Division and controlled the 100th Bomb Group (later Wing) at Miami AAF and the 380th Bomb Group (later Wing) at MacDill AFB in Florida

Boeing C-108 Flying Fortress

The XC-108A was used to fly material and personnel over the Himalayas to the B-29 base in Chengdu, China.

Bolo Airfield

It was allocated to Eighth Air Force in July 1945 to station B-29 Superfortress bombers to fly strategic bombing missions in the planned Invasion of Japan.

Bombing of Yokkaichi in World War II

A total of 89 B-29 Superfortress bombers of the United States Army Air Force’s 313rd Bombardment Wing targeted the center of the city with a major firebombing attack rather than its military and industrial zones on the outskirts.

Charles Donald Albury

On August 9, 1945, just three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, Sweeney's crew, with Albury as co-pilot, took off in the B-29 Superfortress, nicknamed the Bockscar, which would drop the atomic bomb known as the "Fat Man" on the city of Nagasaki.

Edward A. Gisburne

The older son, Edward Jr., fought in the Pacific theater with the 40th Bombardment Group and earned the Air Medal for his actions in aerial combat with the Japanese; he was killed in action at age 29 on May 26, 1945, when his B-29 Superfortress went down.

Lavochkin La-200

The major driver for the three competing aircraft, was the development of the "Toriy" - Thorium centimetre waveband NII-17 RADAR at NIIP - Naoochno-Issledovatel'skiy Institut Priborostroyeniya (Research Institute of Instrument Engineering), which was capable of detecting a B-29 Superfortress bomber at a range of 12 miles.

Niigata, Niigata

Poor weather conditions and its distance from B-29 bases in the Mariana Islands meant that it was removed from the list of targets during deliberations; Nagasaki was bombed instead.

Sandia Base

The aircraft used for these practice missions were Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers similar to the ones that flew the first atomic missions over Japan in 1945.

Schilling Air Force Base

The 58th Bombardment Wing was moved to Smoky Hill AAF on 15 September 1943 from Marietta, Georgia and the mission at the airfield changed from heavy bomber training, to organizing and getting into combat the new B-29 Superfortress.

Thomas Patrick Gerrity

In November 1942 Gerrity was assigned to the Army Air Forces Materiel Command at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, as project officer on B-25, B-26, B-29, B-32, YB-35 and B-36 bombardment aircraft.


see also