How to Fly the Boeing B-29 Superfortress: B-29 Flight Procedure &Crew Functioning 

Cool

Today it's called the APU, Auxiliary Power Unit. B-29 was the first plane to have one.

Robin Orenbuch My God, Robin, I've seen pictures of that plane. My dad was based on Tinian at about the same time. He was a radio operator on Bombin Buggy II and the Nippon Nipper, if I'm remembering correctly: which, to be frank, is somewhat doubtful. He wound up leaving the theater early, but before he did, he got a set of photos of the bomb group, which included a shot of the Kickapoo Joy Juice. I remember this because, as a child, I thought it was a cooler name. Anyway, thanks. It brought back a sliver of memory.

He might have known a guy I knew years back, John Riley, who was a B29 crewman that flew off of Guam, they named their B29 Puss 'n Boots but never got around to having someone paint the name or any kind of art on it. He had some good stories and even better a photo album with some great pictures in it. What's funny about Kick a Poo Joy Juice is it's directly involved with how Lockheed's Skunk Works got it's name, Kick a Poo Joy Juice was a moonshine type of concoction made by a character in the Lil Abner cartoons, where he made it was called his "Skonk Works" because of the foul odor created from ingredients like old boots when he made it, the building that Lockheed gave Kelly Johnson to run his secretive programs out of had been used for something prior to that that'd left an unpleasant odor around the place, one day an employee who was obviously a fan of Lil Abner that was fed up with the odor in there answered the phone and said "Skonk Works", legend has it Johnson wasn't amused but the name stuck, they actually originally had named it Skonk Works and were even spelling it on paperwork that way. but after Lil Abner's creator caught wind of it he threatened to sue Lockheed so they changed it to Skunk Works and the rest is, as we all know, history.

My father was a ralway engineer in hanover(Germany), his family recife the bombs from the B29 in the night, The family say thanks, only love can hurt like this...

HA !! I was stationed at MCLB Albany GA 1989-1990

all while getting shot at

it did seem redundant as hell. i think planes are a little more turn key than that now lol

lol!

Yep, gotta wonder if, with hundreds of planes lined up to take off from Tinean or the other otherwise worthless pieces of Pacific real estate that thousands of Marine's and GI's and died to capture, there was time to go over all that stuff, in 95 degree heat, sweltering humidity, and carrying a max payload of fuel and bombs. The flight engineer probably checked oil pressure, cylinder head temperature [probably already near the red line], and the pilot set the turbos to maximum boost and gunned it down the runway. The crew members prayed that the bird would first get airborne, then climb to cruising altitude before the over-stressed engines burned, More than one B-29 didn't make it into the air on those harrowing takeoff's. Which is why Curtis Lemay ordered the planes to be lightened and the strategy changed to nighttime firebombing.

Nevermind Skipper, Another War just kicked off in some place called Korea

Russ G THE WAY I HEARD IT, CURTIS LEMAY REMOVED THE GUNS FROM THE B-29S, AND SHIFTED TO LOW-LEVEL NIGHT BOMBING, BECAUSE AT HIGH ALTITUDES, THE WINDS OVER JAPAN KEPT DEFLECTING AND SCATTERING THE BOMBS-!

Ronald Davis... Thanks for the laugh! That was great! I actually don't think its right for the Pilot & or Co-Pilot to be responsible for someone else's job, because it lets the person responsible for their own job off the hook, and puts it on the Pilots. Not right to do that in my book.

What plane(s) did he fly in, what squadron?

If you want to fly a B29, check out [ flyaceshigh.com] it is an online WW2 game, they have almost every aircraft in ww2, its a free download, and you can play online free for two weeks, after that its 14,95 a month, you can fly the planes off line anytime.

have you figured out what the Putt-putt is though?

@@frez777 no, have you?

dont forget the disconnector wire LMFAO i think he was talking about an audio cable lol

@@frez777 Today the Putt putt is the APU. The B-29 was the first plane to have one. Most people only knew them as outboard motors for small boats, invented in the 1930s.

Daniël Boomsma it's 2017 and I'm still Impressed.

It's 2019 and I'm still impressed.

+Harold Sugg I can only imagine how difficult it was to refuel jets with the KB-29/50 KC-97! Saw a picture of a KC-97 refueling a B-47. It's a wonder the Stratojet didn't fall out of the sky! (And that was using the flying boom! Look for a video of an F-100 trying to catch a basket with his probe behind a KB-50 while it's wallowing around in the sky! Even harder!)

jpatt1000 i8

jpatt1000

My Dad was a radioman in Korea from 50-52, sir.

now NO ONE IS RESPONSIBLE for poor performance or plain old incompetence. i see it weekly in healthcare and it drives me mad.

Yes, it IS true that the B-29 engines were known to catch fire- it is interesting to remember that the explosive charge(s ) were were removed from the first atom bomb prior to take-off for that very reason. A later version of the B-29 was equipped with the more reliable Pratt and Whitney "Wasp Major" engine. (the B-50?) ...and I have news for you- this is NOT an ideal world! And when there is a war on, you only have 2 choice: 1- you can either fight with what is available to you at the time, or 2- you can do nothing, and very likely get your @ss kicked!

Yep. No such thing as a perfect weapon system or a perfect operational sytem is there.

+Diche Bach , The B-52's were known to catch fire too.

Imagine been a 10 year old boy watching the Wright brother fly their prototype plane near the beach just to later in life see yourself flying across the Atlantic at match 2 in the supersonic Concorde.

@@PointReflex It's not inconceivable that somebody who vaguely remembers hearing about the first powered flight on Earth lived to see the first powered flight on Mars!

Imagine seeing a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch as a small child, and then as an old man you exit a wormhole and land on planet Plavnir-7 and speak to the universal ambassador of the overemperor of the Netille Empire by brainwave translation.

i hope you had some better dreams lately lol

Thank you, sir, for your service! Two hours, then fly a mission. Respect.

i thought this training video was wonky.....no way those flights are 36 minutes long lol

Conrail6370 I'm so sorry to hear of his passing. I'm a military historian, aviation pics published, T birds 498th Bomb Squadron, later T Square my interest. 500th Squadron was the Z Squares. I will do some scratching around, see what I can find. I have all of the operational records of the 498th. I had an in flight FIFI pic of mine enlarged, Boeing XB-29 Test Pilot Bob Robbins was the 29' test pilot after Eddie Allen died in prototype 2. Bob signed the lower corner and later, Gen. Paul Tibbets signed the other corner. Priceless. The 509th was based on Tinian, Tibbets base. The way "home" to San Francisco was Saipan to Quajualine sp, to Hawaii, to Frisco. My grandfather was a Chief Aviation Machinest at nearby Alameda Naval Air Station. I 'll look for Z Square 55 records.

Conrail6370 Your Uncle's B-29 was named the "Jan ice E." , Ryan the commander. Didn't know if you kne we that.

They had two computers aboard, able to calculate correct deflection for the guns by the range and speed of targets. That was incredible technology for the day, especially miniaturised enough to fly!

for the money they spent these things should still be flying lmfao does it bother anyone else that our gvt pisses our money away like drunken sailors? i especially hate when they spend a few billion on mock ups or maybes and then say nah we re good , thanks though. I wonder what Rumsfeld did with those trillions of USA tax dollars that DOD couldnt account for?? on 9-10-01............and then we all remember the day after the evil warhawk Rumsfeld said oopsies we lost Trillions of dollars on live tv.🤯

You are welcome! Zeno

Sat in the bombardiers position in doc recently for an hours flight over northern Arkansas brought back memories of my crew chief time with the 509 be Jim padden

Creek.... Geez why even bother! I wouldn't want to be you with someone like that!

"The wife"

Priceless 🤭🤭🤭😂😂😂😂

Priceless. 🤭🤭🤭😂😂😂😂

Ground crew or air crew?

The manual was only ever available as a download.

ian scott only because they didn’t fly over Germany.

Barbara Anne Neale sad oh well

They were used in ww2 and the korean war so they were used longer than most planes

Alex ..... OMG !!! Are you serious about the crew members dying and the plane crashing and being destroyed? That is so horrible it's shocking !!! So who are they going to point the finger at and blame?

What you said really is funny !! I can visualize it right away in my mind. Then I get a reality slam of just what might happen if you don't get it all checked out. Cuz as we all know, blank happens when you least or never expect it, right. Thanks for the laugh!

Richard Schreiber....

Russ.... That was funny! The thing is that I thought I heard that too! That isn't funny though if they are serious about the wing falling off. That the hell !!

Penny... Yeah hey, what numbskull guy in the armed forces, would be stupid enough to put ammo in backasswards?! Downright unbelievable for sure !!!

Stop calling me “Shirley”. 😂😂

@@jeffw5263 Thank you!

Oh boy that is really funny, what you said !! With all of the bugs and malfunctions on the B29s, I guess unless you got a Silverplate B29, you wouldn't have to worry about bugs & malfunctions. Paul Tibbets B29 had to be a Silverplate B29. I don't think he had any problems with his plane, at least I never heard him mention anything in his interviews.

far too long if you have adhd lol, on the other hand its fabulous if you have OCD

What was his MOS?

It's possible for oil to accumulate in the lower cylinders. Pulling the props gets rid of it.

Thanks for the response, sorry I didn't catch it sooner. Also, by an odd coincidence, it seems we share a last name! (Penny Robinson is NOT my actual name!)

"Mae Wests" are the inflatable life saving vests the crew are wearing. B-29 missions to Japan often flew many hours over open ocean. "Mae West" refers to the well endowed actress of the same name, because of the way the vest increased your apparent chest size when inflated.

ZenosWarbirds Ha haa, very interesting and appropiate name origin for that vest! Wonder how they would call them nowadays...Anna Nicoles? Thank you sir, you are guilty of making me spend some time watching these awesome airplane videos.

It's still the same sky and laws of physics, I imagine a surprising amount would be familiar, just analogue instead of on a screen. Oh, and controls actually physically connected to the surfaces!

"Requesting vector, Victor"

If you want to fly a B29, or any other ww2 aircraft, check out [ flyaceshigh.com ] its an online ww2 game, fly the first two weeks for free, after that its 14,95 a month, and you can fly the planes off line anytime for free, its realy cool game.

Try War Thunder in a few weeks. Completely free and the B-29 is being added soon!

Thanks guys, better than nothing for sure! :-)

Well for the 29's there was no such thing as fast departure since most of the inspection was done while the aircraft was been refueled or maintained by the mechanics. As for the 52's, they have almost the same procedures for inspection, however when the MITO signal is sent, no inspection is needed, the 52's can prime the engines in seconds and be airbone within minutes. The 29 was indeed a chore due to it's over complicated yet somewhat advanced structure for engine use and control.

@@PointReflex Excellent explanation. Thanks!

@@georgelennon3618 You are wellcome. As a side note there is a vintage instruction video on RU-vid about the engineer of the B 29, I recommend you to watch it since it shows how painfully slow is the engine startup process on that plane and most importantly why in an event of a nuclear strike warning going at the base, the 29's crew would have more chances of surviving by evacuating the base by truck than trying to get a 29 airbone.

Stand alert is for MAD with nukes, such a situation didn't exist at the time. They already knew there was a war on!

It was a 4 stroke accessory engine in the back that was started by one of the crewmen whose station was in the back where it was, as I recall they were 16 HP, probably made by someone like Briggs&Stratton. They could run all kinds of stuff until the engine's were started and I think actually assisted with starting them by turning a generator for power to the engine starters.

@@dukecraig2402 So an APU then.

@@dkoz8321 Exactly, and not the kind of APU that says "Thank you vedy much" when he's handing you your change. (Sorry, I couldn't resist)

Im about to take off right now ! yeeeee haw! ok its in simpleplanes but im still flying a b29

karl marx It was not unusual for planes to wait on the flight line for up to 12 hrs, with flight engineers sweating the temperatures of the magnesium engine heads. It was not at all unusual for the first planes returning from a mission to pass by the last taking off. No, it wasn't easy. These guys returned to a tropical paradise that was hot all the time, and dotted with ineffectual wind driven washing machines. Without the checklist, they'd have wound up on Iwo or in the water. Remember, the B-29 was a decade ahead of its time. Unfortunately, its time was the late 30's. However beautiful, efficient or glorious it was, and I do love that plane, it was obsolete by 1947. She deserved better.