Page 33 - Volume 10 Number 8

“Doc” Flies Again
by Edward H. Phillips
“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
“Doc,” a B-29A saved from the U.S. Navy’s weapons testing facility at China Lake, California, in 1987, completed a 16-year, 300,000 man-hour rebuilding program and took to the air for the first time since 1956, on July 17, 2016. (BRETT SCHAUF VMG LLC, COURTESY “DOC’S FRIENDS”)
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.
Built in Wichita, “Doc” was delivered to the United States Army Air Forces in March 1945 and completed a series of modifications at Birmingham, Alabama, before being assigned to Barksdale Field, Louisiana. The bomber was one of an eight-airplane group at the field known as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” hence the nose art and name. (BRETT SCHAUF VMG LLC, COURTESY “DOC’S FRIENDS”)
AUGUST 2016
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 31