During 1943-1944, the “Peerless Princess of the Prairie” became the epicenter of Boeing’s struggle to give General Henry H. “Hap” Arnold the Superfortress bombers he needed to inflict horrific destruction upon the homeland of Japan.
The Imperial Japanese Navy’s surprise attack on the United States military base at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, galvanized isolationist America into the most formidable arsenal of war the world had seen up to that time. Although President Franklin D. Roosevelt believed Hitler’s Third Reich in Europe was the Allies’ primary adversary, he realized that the fight against Japan would have to be waged across the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. America’s goal, set forth in Roosevelt’s famous speech before Congress on December 8, was total victory over Germany, Italy and Japan.
As 1942 began, the United States was swept up in the process of rapidly transitioning from a nation at peace, to a nation at war on a global scale. Wichita, Kansas, had been building military airplanes since 1940, with Beech Aircraft Corporation, Boeing-Stearman, Cessna Aircraft Company and other smaller firms already hard at work when the first bombs fell upon Pearl Harbor’s “battleship row.” The military training aircraft being built in the city played a critical role by training thousands of much needed pilots, bombardiers, navigators and gunners as the Army and Navy expanded by leaps and bounds to “get men to the front” and start fighting the enemy.
Of all the weapons of war produced by the United States, one would emerge to stand tall above the others – the Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bomber. Although designed to operate at very high altitudes, the B-29’s most difficult mission would be fought on the plains of Kansas as Boeing struggled mightily to compress a five-year program into three, while making major modifications to the airplane on the assembly lines in Wichita. By war’s end, nearly 4,000 Superfortress bombers had been produced by three airframe companies – Boeing, the Glenn L. Martin Company and Bell Aircraft. The bombers built by these manufacturers eventually equipped 40 strategic bombing groups (21 located at forward combat bases) with more than 2,100 aircraft. During 1944-1945 raids by hundreds of the bombers would unleash death and destruction upon Japan’s major population centers, killing people by the tens of thousands and burning entire precincts to the ground. Finally, in August 1945, a lone B-29 would deliver the knockout blow that finally brought Japan to its knees and ushered in the Atomic Age.
First, however, some background on the B-29 program will be helpful in setting the stage for Wichita’s role in the overall initiative. Design and development of the Superfortress began in 1939 when the Army Air Corps expressed its interest in a new heavy bomber to replace the B-17 “Flying Fortress” that had entered full-scale production. At the War Department in Washington, D.C., the Air Corp’s boss, Major General Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, appointed Colonel Walter G. Kilner to form a committee to establish exactly what the Air Corps wanted in its next-generation heavy bomber. Late in 1939 Arnold received approval to proceed with the proposal and invited the Boeing Airplane Company, Douglas Aircraft Company and the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation to submit designs.
Of these three, Boeing’s Model 341 and Consolidated’s XB-32 were declared winners, but priority was given to the Model 341 with Consolidated’s design serving as a backup in case Boeing faltered. A key feature of the Model 341 was its wing design that combined the high-speed, low-drag, long-range characteristics of the Davis airfoil that already equipped Consolidated’s B-24 bomber. The Boeing wing would add large flaps along the trailing edge that would help generate lift for takeoff as well as provide optimum handling qualities at low approach and landing airspeeds. The disadvantage of the wing, however, was its high loading of 69 pounds per square foot of area.
In addition to the new wing, Boeing engineers planned to incorporate a modified version of the empennage installed on the B-17E. The long, slender and circular fuselage was designed to contain three pressurized compartments while the bomb bay, which could accommodate up to 10 tons of bombs, would remain unpressurized. The R-3350 static, air-cooled radial engines selected to power the B-29 were built by Wright Aeronautical Corporation and featured 18 cylinders capable of producing 2,200 horsepower. In 1939, the R-3350 was among the most sophisticated and powerful piston engines available in the United States, and derived its power from high compression ratios, higher RPM and supercharging that produced nearly one horsepower per pound of weight. By the end of 1939, Wright Aeronautical had built less than 100 of the engines and problems with cooling soon appeared and persisted for the next four years. The R-3350 radials installed on production bombers turned massive four-blade propellers built by Hamilton Standard.
By September 1940, the Air Corps had approved Boeing’s design and gave the company permission to proceed. One year later, as the war in Europe continued unabated, Boeing received an order for 250 bombers. That order was doubled six months later. The XB-29 first flew in September 1942 with veteran Boeing test pilot Eddie Allen at the controls. Although the new bomber flew well, the R-3350’s cooling problems continued, causing multiple engine failures early in the flight test program. A second prototype B-29 crashed into a factory building in December 1943 after an engine fire raged out of control. Eddie Allen, the entire flight crew and 19 people in the building, died.
General Arnold ordered a thorough investigation, which revealed that the intake and exhaust valves in certain cylinders were prone to overheating that caused the valve heads to separate from the valve stems. The debris was ingested into the engine and often caused a fire that, if not extinguished, spread to the magnesium alloy accessory section, which burned fiercely and weakened the main spar, burning through it in some cases. Meanwhile, the XB-29 and YB-29 prototypes continued to fly but were still beset with a long list of engine problems, including unsatisfactory cowl flap performance, rerouting of oil lines and tubes, redesign of intake and exhaust valves and many other issues too numerous to mention.
Meanwhile, Boeing was orchestrating a three-phase program for the B-29: Not only was the remaining XB-29 built without the benefit of detailed engineering drawings and parts, but the design, tooling and flight testing were all being conducted simultaneously! America’s entry into World War II was still six months away, but the rush was on to get the Superfortress into production. To make matters worse, the Air Corps demanded costly and time-consuming changes and revisions to changes that hampered progress. In addition, political pressures were mounting, beginning with the White House all the way down through Congress to General Arnold. As time passed and the B-29 was not yet ready for production, it was Arnold’s unwavering confidence in Boeing’s bomber that kept the program alive.
The evening of May 17, 1941, found Julius Earl Schaefer, general manager of Boeing-Wichita, talking on the telephone with a reporter. Schaefer was stunned to learn of a national effort to build $100 million-worth of airplanes, many of which would be built in Wichita. It was the first time Schaefer had heard the news, but the next morning he received an official directive from the War Department directing him to purchase, with the utmost haste, “jigs, dies, fixtures and all critical materials essential to production of the B-29 at Wichita.” As if that revelation was not stunning enough, the directive added that delivery of the first airplane was scheduled for February 1, 1943, only 21 months away.
The shocking news came at a time when the Wichita Division of Boeing was unprepared to tackle anything the size and complexity of the Superfortress. The factory was already hard-pressed to deliver hundreds of PT-13-, PT-17- and N2S-series primary trainers that were desperately needed by the Air Corps and the United States Navy to train pilots. Far more shocking, however, was that no facility existed to build the B-29. Schaefer’s situation could be summed up like this: Wichita had been called upon to obtain tooling that did not exist, install them in a phantom factory, manufacture the world’s most sophisticated bomber whose design and systems were constantly in flux, and build it with non-existent, unskilled labor that had no training or experience for such a task. Furthermore, General Arnold and the Air Corps wanted the first B-29 delivered on-time, or better yet, ahead of schedule.
The challenge facing Boeing-Wichita was breathtaking. To succeed, Schaefer and his management team would have to declare “war” on the B-29 itself. Wichita had been selected as the site to build the super bomber because it was located in the nation’s heartland, safely away from both coasts and enemy attacks. The B-17 was in production at Boeing’s main factories in Seattle, Washington, and there was no room there to handle production of the giant bomber. Southern California was already busy with aircraft manufacturing, and the East Coast was not a candidate. Fortunately, Boeing’s Wichita team had a nucleus of personnel that could tackle the task. Still, the Air Corp’s rigid timetable coupled with the sheer scope of the program caused many people to doubt it could be done.
The first step was building a factory whose square footage boggled the imagination. In June 1941, ground was broken for a huge manufacturing and assembly complex designated as Boeing-Wichita Plant II. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December, the pace of construction accelerated significantly and the initial part of the factory was completed by the Cleveland, Ohio-based Austin Company in January 1943. As fast as Austin Company employees finished one area within the facility and began another, Boeing moved in and began installing the first of 130,000 pieces of tooling. When Boeing finally took possession of Plant II, the Austin Company had built more than 2.8-million square feet of floor space – almost 180 acres – all under one roof.
It should be mentioned that all of the feverish activity in Wichita caught the attention of Air Corps General K.B. Wolfe, who telephoned Schaefer in June 1942 to inform him that in addition to building a factory for the B-29, Boeing-Wichita had been chosen as prime contractor to build 750 Waco CG-4A troop gliders. Schaefer would, however, receive help from Walter Beech and Dwane Wallace who led the Beech Aircraft Corporation and the Cessna Aircraft Company, respectfully. Their combined workforces would build subassemblies and ship them across town to Boeing-Wichita for final assembly. Wolfe got his 750 gliders, on-time and ready for the D-Day invasion of Adolf Hitler’s “Fortress Europe” two years later.1
What Julius E. Schaefer needed next was people to build the B-29. The call went out from coast to coast for patriotic Americans to leave their families, their homes and their professions and relocate to Wichita – fast! They came by the thousands from every state in the Union – housewives, church pastors, taxi cab drivers, farmers, oil field workers, clerks, and teachers, to name only a few occupations. Last but not least, they were willing to work a minimum of 80 hours a week. Many were native mid-westerners. Few of those who arrived in the “Peerless Princess of the Prairie” in 1942 and 1943 knew anything about airplanes, radial engines, propellers, tooling, materials and the thousands of processes involved in building a super bomber.
Workers were trained in special classes based on their demonstrated abilities and were quickly sent to the production line. Although some people were assigned to build the PT-13 and PT-17 trainers, the majority went to work on the B-29. To house the new workforce, Boeing, the Army and the City of Wichita rapidly erected what amounted to military barracks that offered only the bare essentials of home. Many communities in the surrounding area also helped by improvising living quarters and taking in boarders. Merchants kept their shelves stocked with necessities, and shuttle service took laborers to and from Plant II.
Gradually, the back shops began to hum with activity as thousands of parts began flowing into the main assembly area. A large number of these parts were fabricated by hand because tooling and fixtures had yet to be delivered. Quality, however, did suffer and was reflected in the fact that the empty weight of some bombers was hundreds of pounds higher than others, chiefly because of variations in materials, processes and manufacturing tolerances. It is important to remember that Boeing was still making changes to the airplane’s design while Plant II workers were trying to build airplanes.
In addition, the B-29 was not only the largest airplane to be manufactured in Wichita, it also was pressurized, and that technology presented its own set of unique challenges. Special seals around the cockpit windows and gun sighting blisters had to be matched perfectly to prevent air leaks, and it took workers time and plenty of mistakes to determine exactly how it had to be done. The wing was another area plagued by design difficulties during the early production phase. In Seattle, Boeing engineers scheduled static tests of the wing structures while wings for the initial batch of bombers were being built in Plant II. In the wake of the static tests, modifications to the wings were ordered, resulting in chaos on Plant II’s sprawling production line as workers struggled to incorporate the changes with a minimum of disruption. New tooling for the wings was eventually built and sent to Wichita, but production continued to be hampered by further changes until the final specifications were implemented.
Plant II was a massive enclosure, but the ramp outside boasted more than 1.5-million square feet and soon became “home” for bombers awaiting modifications. In the winter of 1943-1944, the temperature often dipped well below freezing, and occasionally, driven by a bone-chilling wind chill factor, fell below zero. Yet, the work went on and the work was done despite the harsh conditions. More than 1,200 technicians were pulled off the assembly lines and sent outside to complete modifications to the bomber’s airframe. The lessons and pitfalls of mass production were being learned the hard way by Boeing-Wichita. A new bomber that was supposed to have a five-year development and testing period before production began, was being designed, developed, tested and manufactured in only 36 months, all with a largely unskilled/semiskilled workforce, and before final engineering drawings and blueprints had been delivered to Plant II.
Another major problem centered on faulty electrical connectors, commonly called “cannon plugs,” that featured multiple contact points and facilitated electrical connections throughout the B-29’s 10 miles of wiring. After assembly, the plugs often failed but had worked perfectly during sub-assembly tests. The problem was traced to vibration on the ground and in flight that caused the metal pins to come loose. Once a fix had been developed, workers removed, rebuilt and reinstalled approximately 586,000 plugs, a task that consumed an incredible 40,000 man-hours.
While all those plugs were being rebuilt, it soon became apparent to pilots that the glass windows in the cockpit were distorting their forward view. They had to shift their vision from one pane to another in an attempt to see what lay ahead. The distortion went undetected by the supplier, who was producing and checking the windows according to strict specifications. The distortion was eventually removed, but the glass in 75 bombers had to be replaced, and the production line slowed to a crawl awaiting new windows for installation.
By late 1943, still very early in the B-29’s production run, Plant II was operating three seven-and-a-half-hour shifts, six days a week. General Arnold, however, was not satisfied with progress and the work week was increased to two, 10-hour shifts, six days a week. Many key workers, such as foremen and lead men, and certain specialists and technicians, often worked consecutive shifts for as many as three days, catching a few minutes of sleep when they could be spared from the production line. Despite the physical and emotional strain imposed by 80-hour work weeks, Boeing-Wichita workers maintained that brutal pace throughout 1944 and into 1945, when the factory downshifted to a 55-hour work week.2
Throughout the critical years of 1943-1945, building the B-29 was a “battle” in itself with its plethora of problems. General Arnold, however, was determined to get the B-29 into combat against the Japanese. Not only was he commander of the Army Air Forces, but he was committed to creating and equipping a new 20th Air Force that he hoped would vindicate the theory of long range strategic bombardment. All he needed was the right bomber – the B-29.
The sole purpose of the new air force was straightforward: bomb Japan into submission. In Europe, both the Eighth Air Force and the Royal Air Force’s Bomber Command were paying a high price in a vain attempt to prove that bombing alone could bring the Third Reich to its knees. Meanwhile, a great deal of political wrangling was occurring in London and Washington regarding the overall efficacy of strategic bombing campaigns. Losses of heavy bombers and their aircrews were often unacceptably high for both the Eighth Air Force (daylight missions) and Bomber Command (nighttime missions), but the raids never stopped.
Arnold’s plans were to bomb Japan from bases in the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater of Operations, and “Hap” had concluded that he needed a minimum of 175 of Boeing’s mighty B-29s to do the job. He possessed a talented staff that had already drawn up plans for striking Japan’s industrial cities, led by General K.B. Wolfe, a veteran of Eighth Air Force operations. On January 11, 1944, Arnold flew to Wichita and paid a visit to J. Earl Schaefer. As he was escorted through Plant II, he liked what he saw – dozens and dozens of B-29s moving down the assembly lines. He was, however, looking for one Superfortress in particular, number 175, and he found it entering final assembly. “This is the airplane I want,” he told Schaefer, “and I want it by the first of March.” It was completed on February 28th.
The 20th Air Force was scheduled to depart the United States for China in March, but when Arnold went to Salina, Kansas, where the bombers were being prepared for departure, he received a nasty shock; not one B-29 was ready to go! Arnold was livid. He learned that the bombers still lacked vital parts and the best estimate was that it would be months before the first B-29 would be ready for the long flight to China. President Roosevelt wanted Japan bombed. Arnold assured him that the B-29 was the weapon to do just that. Plans had been approved. Red tape eliminated. Crews had been trained. Bases were waiting in the CBI Theater, but the bombers were going nowhere.
Arnold soon concluded that it was not only parts that were keeping the B-29s on the ground, organization and management of the modifications was poor at best. To correct these problems, Arnold brought in General Bennett Myers, who immediately took steps aimed at getting the bombers on their way to China. In addition to Salina, facilities were established at Walker, Pratt and Great Bend, Kansas. Air Corps technicians, logistics experts and other personnel were sent to Kansas and began unclogging the technical logjam. Boeing in Seattle dispatched 600 technicians, and more help was sent from B-29 manufacturers Martin and Bell. Soon, flight crews were flying bombers from one modification site to another, providing them with valuable flight time in the Superfortress. They also took delivery of new bombers and flew them to the centers for modifications. One of the key modifications centered on removing the factory-installed R-3350 radial engines and replacing them with much improved R-3350-23A that featured more durable valves, better lubrication and other important upgrades.
The Army Air Corps told parts suppliers to stop all non-essential work and fulfill their obligations for the B-29 first. Trucks, trains and airplanes stuffed with new parts soon began arriving at the four sites. As the days passed, Boeing and an army of skilled technicians and workers were gradually reengineering the B-29 out in the open, despite the horrid working conditions brought on by the frigid Kansas winter. Back in Wichita, Boeing employees did their part by working 21 consecutive 10-hour shifts per day to help meet General Arnold’s schedule.
The “Battle of Kansas,” as the modification program became known, was won by Americans who sacrificed time off, rest and physical nourishment to help get the B-29 into the war. Because of their gallant efforts, the 20th Air Force was officially activated on April 4, 1944. A majority of the B-29s that flew the initial raid on Japan, specifically against the steel mills at Yawata on June 15, 1944, were built in Wichita and modified at the Kansas sites. Arnold’s new air force, later led by the cigar-chomping General Curtiss LeMay, went on to drop more than 170,000 tons of high explosives and incendiaries on the Japanese homeland. More importantly, the hordes of B-29s sent to bomb Japan paved the way for the “Enola Gay” to usher in the Atomic Age in August 1945.
With Japan on the verge of total capitulation, General Arnold told workers at Boeing-Wichita, in part: “What I told Earl Schaefer in Washington, I want to tell you people at Boeing, Wichita and Kansas. You were given a job to do and the way you finished the job met our greatest expectations. For myself and on behalf of the Army Air Forces, I say to you, well done, and thanks from the bottom of my heart.”
Notes:
- It took Boeing-Wichita workers an average of 157,000 man-hours to build the first 100 bombers, but by 1945 it took only 17,000 man-hours to complete the last 100 airplanes. Production of the B-29 peaked at 4.2 bombers per day and 100 per month – a phenomenal feat of American industrial might that neither Germany nor Japan could hope to equal. The last B-29 built in Wichita rolled down the runway on October 10, 1945.
- According to the Kansas State Historical Society, during the war Boeing, Beech Aircraft, Cessna Aircraft and Culver Aircraft manufactured more than 25,800 military airplanes along with sufficient spare parts to construct another 5,000. Boeing-Wichita built 1,644 B-29s and produced equivalent spares to build another 125 bombers.
- In December 1944, Arnold was promoted to General of the Army, a five-star rank he shared with his contemporaries in the Army and Navy. When the Army Air Forces became the United States Air Force, he served as its first leader. Born in 1886, Arnold died in 1950.
Additional note: As of 2016, only two B-29s are airworthy and flying – “Fifi,” owned and operated by the Commemorative Air Force (former Confederate Air Force), and just recently added “Doc,” owned and operated by Doc’s Friends in Wichita, Kansas (see sidebar).
“Doc” Flies Again
“Doc,” a World War II Boeing B-29A Superfortress heavy bomber, flew on July 17, 2016, for the first time since 1956, before touring the nation to educate current and future generations about the air war over Japan during 1945.
The four-engine airplane recently completed a 16-year, $5-million restoration/remanufacturing program that returned the bomber to airworthy condition. The work was guided by “Doc’s Friends,” a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the “world about the rich heritage of aviation,” according to Jeff Turner, retired Chief Executive Officer of Wichita, Kansas-based Spirit AeroSystems. The company was a major contributor to the restoration effort.
Built near the end of World War II, Doc was one of 1,644 B-29 bombers delivered to the United States Army Air Forces at Boeing’s massive Plant II facility in Wichita. When the war in the Pacific ended, the bomber was operated as a training platform for B-29 air crews and eventually was placed in outside storage at the United States Navy’s weapons testing facility at China Lake, California. After 42 years of sitting in the dry desert, a group of aviation history buffs acquired “Doc,” disassembled the B-29 and slowly initiated a full restoration. In 2000, the airplane was shipped to Wichita where restoration work continued for the next 16 years.
During that time, a small army of enthusiasts spent more than 300,000 man-hours making the bomber airworthy again. James Murphy, project manager, said the teams of men and women included 90-year old “Rosie the riveter” Connie Palacioz who, at age 18 in 1945, drove rivets into Doc’s airframe as it progressed slowly down the production line.
The flight lasted about seven minutes and the crew reported an overall successful flight. Doc took off from McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kansas, and returned to the same runway. In the coming days, the ground and restoration team will review all of the flight data and gauge readings, and they will also perform a full check and inspection of the plane’s systems and control surfaces.
Doc is one of only two B-29s that are currently airworthy, the other is “Fifi.” The bomber will be permanently based at Wichita’s Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport. Boeing, Bell Aircraft and Martin Aircraft manufactured more than 3,600 Superfortress bombers during 1943-1945.
To learn more about Doc’s journey, go to www.b-29doc.com.
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