Page 36 - Volume 10 Number 8

In addition to having a maximum speed of more than 350 mph, the B-29 could carry eight tons of bombs and had a combat radius of 2,000 miles. In February 1945, Boeing- Wichita delivered the 1,000th B-29. By the end of the
war in the Pacific, hundreds of the bombers had dropped more than 170,000 tons of high explosive and incendiary ordnance on the homeland of Japan. In August 1945,
the Enola Gay and Bockscar dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II. (WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES)
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
The last B-29 built at Boeing-Wichita was flown away
by a Ferry Command crew on October 10, 1945. The Superfortress, however, was soon replaced by the Boeing B-47 Stratojet bomber that, as with its four-engine predecessor, was built in Wichita. (WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES)