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Offline Flyin6

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B-29, how cool!
« on: March 01, 2017, 03:00:09 PM »
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Offline stlaser

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Re: B-29, how cool!
« Reply #1 on: March 01, 2017, 04:00:16 PM »
 :likebutton:
Living in the remote north hoping Ken doesn’t bring H up here any time soon…..

Offline Wilbur

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Re: B-29, how cool!
« Reply #2 on: March 01, 2017, 04:14:30 PM »
THAT is awesome. Such a gift from those volunteers to the men and women who made it and flew it. That is very cool!

Offline Flyin6

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Re: B-29, how cool!
« Reply #3 on: March 01, 2017, 09:25:09 PM »
My dad flew B-17G's bombing Germany until the end of the war in Europe. Afterward, the Army offered him a transition into the B-29 to bomb Japan, but he declined, having seen enough I think.
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Offline wilsonphil

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Re: B-29, how cool!
« Reply #4 on: March 01, 2017, 10:04:42 PM »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u4YBwjQTds

I know some of the guys that were involved in this, very sad story, one guy got real sick and died and then they burn the plane to the ground doing a very stupid thing!

Offline cj7ox

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Re: B-29, how cool!
« Reply #5 on: March 03, 2017, 12:18:08 PM »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u4YBwjQTds

I know some of the guys that were involved in this, very sad story, one guy got real sick and died and then they burn the plane to the ground doing a very stupid thing!

Man, that sucks! All that work. I guess He didn't want that bird coming home.
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Offline stewie

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Re: B-29, how cool!
« Reply #6 on: March 03, 2017, 12:28:57 PM »
absolutely amazing. back when i lived near Nellis AFB, they have a B17 there that people could fly in. How i salivated for the chance....
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Offline Sammconn

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Re: B-29, how cool!
« Reply #7 on: March 03, 2017, 04:29:15 PM »
So cool what they did, and so sad how it ended.
I would agree He wanted it to stay.
I just don't want to wind up missing a digit or limb.  I can sometimes get in a hurry to get results.
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Offline Flyin6

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Re: B-29, how cool!
« Reply #8 on: March 04, 2017, 07:18:56 PM »
absolutely amazing. back when i lived near Nellis AFB, they have a B17 there that people could fly in. How i salivated for the chance....
I flew in formation off that B-17 in my Chinook...Saw him cruising down the vallet toward Tuscon and just pulled in alongside and we flew over the Sonora national forest together. Wish I had a pic of that flight...The B-17 was my Dad's plane, and the Hook, obviously was mine...
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Offline wilsonphil

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Re: B-29, how cool!
« Reply #9 on: March 06, 2017, 03:05:33 PM »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u4YBwjQTds

I know some of the guys that were involved in this, very sad story, one guy got real sick and died and then they burn the plane to the ground doing a very stupid thing!

Man, that sucks! All that work. I guess He didn't want that bird coming home.

there is a huge backstory, but to make it short.  These guys were out trying to get money to fly this thing home.  The original plan was to install 2ea NiCad batteries to start the engines.  At the time these batteries were about 8K apiece so a total of 16K.  Well they didn't want to spend the cash and the company that makes the batteries would not donate/loan the units.  So it was decided that since there is an APU in the back of B29 they would just get that running and use it to start the engines.

SOOOOOO  once they get there it was discovered that the diaphragm for the fuel pump for the APU was not good so they couldn't get fuel to the APU to get it started, one of the rocket children decided to just hang a 5 gallon gas can above the APU and gravity feed the APU.  (are you seeing where this is going)

All was good and they got the plane up to where it could be taxied, so they decided to do a couple "high speed" taxi's to make sure everything was good.  Well since the 5 gallon fuel can was not secured very well during one of those high speed taxis the line or the can itself became "unsecured" and everyone knows what happens when you dump 100LL aviation fuel all over a running very hot APU.

You can see the aftermath in the movie. its very sad that a B29 with just a little over 100hrs was destroyed because people didn't think.  Very sad story all the way around. 
« Last Edit: March 06, 2017, 03:21:22 PM by wilsonphil »

Offline Sammconn

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Re: B-29, how cool!
« Reply #10 on: March 06, 2017, 03:39:19 PM »
Oh man, that's a horrible cause for this...
I just don't want to wind up missing a digit or limb.  I can sometimes get in a hurry to get results.
Sam

Offline Flyin6

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Re: B-29, how cool!
« Reply #11 on: March 06, 2017, 05:33:50 PM »
It's always in the details

Like as in every good aircraft accident (That wasn't piloted by a couple of Army Warrant Officers)...SOME "MINOR" DETAIL
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Offline wilsonphil

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Re: B-29, how cool!
« Reply #12 on: March 06, 2017, 06:13:00 PM »
Also from what I know and have been told by people that were there(I was not) I don't think the plane would of made it too far after take off.  Again very sad story for the people and the aircraft involved.

Offline Flyin6

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Re: B-29, how cool!
« Reply #13 on: March 06, 2017, 06:41:58 PM »
Also from what I know and have been told by people that were there(I was not) I don't think the plane would of made it too far after take off.  Again very sad story for the people and the aircraft involved.
I would tent to concur although I am not appraised of the actual condition. But I have started a bunch of aircraft in my time. Whenever you started something that had been sitting along time, be prepared for the inevitable leaks. Be they fuel, hydraulic, air, whatever, expect everything to leak. The lines on that bird were 70+ years old. Almost inconceivable to believe the rubber would have been serviceable at all. Heck my case loader with its 1975 vintage fittings pops a leak about every other time I use it.

If they would have gotten the thing into the air, it would have been on the wing of a prayer to get it any distance before it ran out of something... Best way to have recover that thing would have been to tear it down into big pieces, then contract a Russian MI-26 to sling load the chunks out. That operation would have been in the tens of millions and with a 50/50 probability of success in my view.
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Offline wilsonphil

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Re: B-29, how cool!
« Reply #14 on: March 06, 2017, 07:25:27 PM »
Also from what I know and have been told by people that were there(I was not) I don't think the plane would of made it too far after take off.  Again very sad story for the people and the aircraft involved.
. Whenever you started something that had been sitting along time, be prepared for the inevitable leaks. Be they fuel, hydraulic, air, whatever, expect everything to leak. The lines on that bird were 70+ years old. Almost inconceivable to believe the rubber would have been serviceable at all.

If they would have gotten the thing into the air, it would have been on the wing of a prayer to get it any distance before it ran out of something...  my view.

This is exactly what was happening, the reason there were taxing was to try to get everything up to temp, the oil lines were breaking faster that they could fix them.

Offline cj7ox

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Re: B-29, how cool!
« Reply #15 on: March 07, 2017, 02:17:10 PM »

there is a huge backstory, but to make it short.  These guys were out trying to get money to fly this thing home.  The original plan was to install 2ea NiCad batteries to start the engines.  At the time these batteries were about 8K apiece so a total of 16K.  Well they didn't want to spend the cash and the company that makes the batteries would not donate/loan the units.  So it was decided that since there is an APU in the back of B29 they would just get that running and use it to start the engines.

SOOOOOO  once they get there it was discovered that the diaphragm for the fuel pump for the APU was not good so they couldn't get fuel to the APU to get it started, one of the rocket children decided to just hang a 5 gallon gas can above the APU and gravity feed the APU.  (are you seeing where this is going)

All was good and they got the plane up to where it could be taxied, so they decided to do a couple "high speed" taxi's to make sure everything was good.  Well since the 5 gallon fuel can was not secured very well during one of those high speed taxis the line or the can itself became "unsecured" and everyone knows what happens when you dump 100LL aviation fuel all over a running very hot APU.

You can see the aftermath in the movie. its very sad that a B29 with just a little over 100hrs was destroyed because people didn't think.  Very sad story all the way around.

This info just makes the story worse. Sounds to me like they cut corners in the name of greed and television. Sad. Very sad.
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Offline JR

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Re: B-29, how cool!
« Reply #16 on: March 09, 2017, 04:59:46 PM »
Then they just let it sink into the lake?
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