China to hunt remains at 1950 US bomber crash site Oct 27, 2009
Reports said the B-29 Superfortress caught fire and crashed on Nov. 5, 1950 while flying over Guangdong's Raoping county, just as Chinese forces were preparing to attack U.S. troops on the Korean Peninsula. Search and recovery efforts are considered of major importance to the U.S. military and deeply symbolic for relations between the U.S. and Chinese militaries. (San Francisco Chronicle -- Science)
Francis Winn Doherty, 88, decorated veteran of 3 wars Sep 12, 2009
He became a career navigator, first aboard a B-29 Superfortress with the 58th Bomb Wing, 468th Bomb Group, one of the first units to take the B-29 into combat in the China-Burma-India theater and later the Pacific theater. During the war, Mr. Doherty served on bombers named the Rankless Wreck and Jack s Hack, completing 26 missions throughout Southeast Asia, including the last mission of the war on Aug. 14, 1945. (Boston Globe)
Williams Oil-O-Matic plant beat plowshares into swords Aug 30, 2009
The company manufactured hydraulic control devices (or what were called "oil gears") for aiming antiaircraft guns, as well as smoke screen generators for the U.S. Navy and parts for the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber. Although Oil-O-Matic was the largest war plant in the area, it was hardly the only one. (The Pantagraph newspaper)
Your views: Letters to the editor Aug 24, 2009
The B-29 Superfortress bomber Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima to end World War II was named after the pilots mother. I doubt if she was a lesbian. (Florida Today)
Nuke-free world urged on Hiroshima bomb anniversary Aug 6, 2009
Morris Jeppson, one of the crew members of the B-29 Superfortress plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, told the Mainichi Shimbun daily this week that he believed then-US president Harry Truman had made the right decision. Jeppson, 87, argued that Obama was "on the wrong track" and that his appeal for a nuclear-weapons-free world was "naive," the newspaper reported. (Sydney Morning Herald -- World)
The horror of Hiroshima lives on Aug 5, 2009
As the child of anti-nuclear activists, I was raised to pay attention to two significant dates in American history - the day when the Enola Gay, a B-29 Superfortress bomber named after the pilot's mother, dropped Little Boy, a five-ton uranium explosion bomb, on Hiroshima; and. the moment, three days later, when another plane, jokingly named Bock's Car (after the plane's original pilot), dropped Fat Man (a moniker supposedly given it in honor of former British prime minister Winston Churchill),... (Asia Times Online)
Bombing Hiroshima was right, majority in US say Aug 5, 2009
An atomic bomb dropped from a B-29 Superfortress plane exploded over Hiroshima on the morning of August 6, 1945, killing more than 140,000 people either instantly or in the days and weeks that followed as radiation or horrific burns took their toll. Three days later, with Japan still reeling from the devastation wrought on Hiroshima, the United States dropped a second nuclear bomb on Nagasaki. (Sydney Morning Herald -- World)
Advance ticket sales up 33 pct for EAA AirVenture Jul 26, 2009
WhiteKnightTwo _ which has a 140-foot wingspan, about the same as a World War II B-29 Superfortress bomber _ is designed to tuck SpaceShipTwo under its center and release it at 50,000 feet. After separation, SpaceShipTwo will fire its hybrid rocket and climb some 62 miles above Earth, the internationally recognized boundary of space. (Chippewa Falls Chippewa Herald, WI)
She left her heart in the P-51 Jul 18, 2009
Sweet flew 52 different types of military aircraft, including the B-17 Flying Fortress and B-29 Superfortress bombers, but she left her heart in the cockpit of the P-51 Mustang. "She was a honey to fly," she said of the long-range, single-seat fighter plane that helped beat Hitler's Germany. (Albany Times Union)
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Jun 6, 2009
The B-29 Superfortress that dropped the atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945, on Hiroshima, Japan, was itself almost defenseless. Most Superfortresses had five remote-controlled gun turrets, quite an innovation at the time, and armor plating. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- Travel)
Deaths in the news: Charles Albury Jun 6, 2009
Albury helped fly the B-29 Superfortress, nicknamed "Bockscar," that dropped the weapon Aug. 9, 1945. He also witnessed the first atomic blast over Hiroshima, as a pilot on a support plane that measured the magnitude of the blast and levels of radioactivity. (Athens Banner-Herald)
Hometown History: West Salem park dedication a reminder of soldiers’ sacrifices May 25, 2009
As a tragic reminder of the sacrifices still being made, two days after the dedication of the park William and Ella Larsen of West Salem received notification that their only son, Army Lt. Albert Larsen, was killed in action on May 29 while serving as a radar officer on a B-29 Superfortress in the Pacific. June 26, the day the Larsens received notification of Albert s death, also happened to be Albert s birthday. (La Crosse Tribune, WI)
Charles A. Chuck Castle May 4, 2009
Chuck was a veteran of World War II, and served as a tank commander before transferring to the U.S. Army Air Corps where he served as a flight engineer on a B-29 Superfortress and flew 25 combat missions over Japan. He was the recipient of the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters, the Distinguished Flying Cross. (The Herald-Palladium)
National Trust For Historic Preservation Announces 2009 List of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places(R) Apr 28, 2009
The Manhattan Project's Enola Gay Hangar, Wendover Airfield, Utah -- The hangar that housed the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress that dropped the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945, is, along with other Manhattan Project sites, in a critical state of disrepair. Memorial Bridge, Portsmouth, N.H. to Kittery, Maine -- For more than 85 years, Memorial Bridge, the first major lift bridge in the eastern U.S., has been a sturdy and dramatic landmark, spanning the... (PR Newswire)
This is not the ‘Greatest Generation’ Mar 21, 2009
Inside are the B-24 Liberator; Mitchell B-25 ( Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo); the C-47 Gooney Bird ; the F4U-4 Corsair of Pappy Boyington fame; the B-29 Superfortress that was responsible for bringing the war in the Pacific to an end; and many more famous airplanes. I rub shoulders with WWII veterans and visitors who share their war experiences. (Green Valley News & Sun, AZ)
Frankenstein Conquers the World Mov... Mar 12, 2009
Before Japanese scientists can experiment on the organ in Hiroshima, the American B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay levels the city with the dropping of a single atomic bomb. With Little Boy totally ruining the scientific welcoming party, the monster's immortal heart bides its time. (Suite101.com)
Repairs to B-29 Fifi Mar 5, 2009
Grounded since 2006 with engine and structural problems, the Commemorative 's Boeing B-29 Superfortress, Fifi, will hopefully take to the sky again in time for the 2010 summer air show tour. "We're anticipating back-to-flight status of spring of 0-10. If all the planets align and everything remains on schedule, that's what we're shooting for," B-29 crew chief Dave Miller, who has been overseeing the repairs since October, said with a chuckle. (Odessa American, TX)
Courtroom Confidential Feb 13, 2009
"The privilege was first officially recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 1953 decision, United States v. Reynolds (345 U.S. 1). A military airplane, a B-29 Superfortress bomber, crashed. The widows of three civilian crew members sought accident reports on the crash but were told that to release such details would threaten national security by revealing the bomber's top-secret mission. The court held that only the government can claim or waive the privilege, and it 'is not to be lightly... (Slate)
