Duxford 25 years ago today

An excellent piccy of Hawg Wild has just appeared on Airliners.net.The pic was taken at Keflavic duringa break in her ferry flight to Duxford…

http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=788930&WxsIERv=Obrvat%20O-29N%20Fhcresbegerff&WdsYXMg=Hagvgyrq%20Vzcrevny%20Jne%20Zhfrhz&QtODMg=Xrsynivx%20%28XRS%20%2F%20OVXS%29&ERDLTkt=Vprynaq&ktODMp=Bpgbore%2012%2C%201978&BP=1&WNEb25u=Onyqhe%20Firvaffba&xsIERvdWdsY=44-61748&MgTUQtODMgKE=Gnxra%20qhevat%20gur%20rneyl%20zbeavat%20sebz%20gur%20Jrngure%20Bssvpr%20gbjre.%20V%20frrz%20gb%20erzrzore%20gung%20guvf%20fcbg%20bs%20fhayvtug%20bayl%20ynfgrq%20sbe%20nobhg%2015%20zvahgrf%20be%20fb.%20Vg%20jnf%20ba%20vgf%20jnl%20gb%20gur%20Vzcrevny%20Jnf%20Zhfrhz%20ng%20Qhksbeq.&YXMgTUQtODMgKERD=0&NEb25uZWxs=2005-03-05&ODJ9dvCE=&O89Dcjdg=11225&static=yes&sok=%20BEQRE%20OL%20cubgb_vq%20QRFP&photo_nr=1&prev_id=&next_id=788424&tbl=WARBIRD&size=L

Feasibility studies showed that it would be cheaper and preferable to restore the aircraft to flying condition and fly it to Duxford rather than to dismantle and transport by sea.

Sitting here open-jawed… must have been in very good condition then. 🙂

Thanks very much for posting that summary Jonathan.

Wasn’t the ferry pilot killed shortly after returning to the US? Ferrying a Cessna twin or something…?

T J

Just the landing at Duxford, although I believe it flew into Mildenhall first, then on to Duxford where it remained grounded.

And is now ‘Hawg Wild’ in the AAM. This nose art was I believe spotted under the mish-mash paint/primer/metal ‘scheme’ as recovered from China Lake.

Just the landing at Duxford, although I believe it flew into Mildenhall first, then on to Duxford where it remained grounded.

Indeed it does, many thanks Jonathan. And pardon my Antipodean ignorance, and it seems rather obvious, but do I therefore take it that this is the one on display at the American Air Museum? And was it displayed at all (flying), or simply make the one flight and landing?

From the IWM caption:

B-29A-BN serial number 44-61748 was built at Renton, Washington in 1944 and served with several USAAF and USAF units. During the Korean War it was assigned to the 307th Bomb Wing and operating from Okinawa flew bombing raids against communications targets. The aircraft was later acquired by the US Navy for experimental work and eventually stored at China Lake, California. The aircraft was flown to Duxford in March 1980.

From our files:

Built at the Boeing plant at Renton, Washington and was accepted by the United States Air Force in May 1945. It wa initially allocated to the 421st Base Unit, 4th Air Force, then to the 410th Base Unit, Air Transport Base and subsequently to the 3040th Aircraft Storage Squadron, Air Material Command. In February 1952 it was allocated to the 9th Air Base Group and in March it joined the 307th Bomb Group, Far East Air Force at Kadena Air Force Base on Okinawa. The 307th Bomb Group was one of the groups that took part in the bombing of Korea by the allies before returning to the USA in July 1953. In October 1954 the aircraft returned to the 3040th Aircraft Storage Squadron. It was subsequently converted to a T29A trainer in 1955 and joined the 4750th Air Defence Wing at Yuma County Airport, Arizona. In November 1956 it was sent to the Naval Weapons Centre, China Lake, California, as a target tug and was subsequently parked in open storage in the desert. In October 1977 the Museum learnt of the existence of several B29’s parked in the open at China Lake and in 1979 the United States Navy generously offered to donate one of them to the Museum. Feasibility studies showed that it would be cheaper and preferable to restore the aircraft to flying condition and fly it to Duxford rather than to dismantle and transport by sea. A potentially airworthy aircraft was chosen and a contractor sought to carry out the work necessary to restore the aircraft sufficiently to fly it back to the UK. The contractor, Aero Services of Tuscon, Arizona who had previous experience restoring two other B29’s, one of which flew out to join the Confederate Air Force Museum at Harlington, Texas, took six months to complete the work required. The Imperial War Museum’s Chief Engineer, Geoff Bottomley was the man overseeing the work and locating original spare parts for the aircraft. After additional work and test flights had taken place at Mojave, California and Tucson, Arizona, the aircraft then started the 7,000 mile flight to its future home, landing at Duxford on the 2 March 1980.

Hope that helps.

Wow – man I’d love to see one of those suckers. Anyone got any history on that aircraft?

After all that I’m feeling really ancient, I was nearly 28!

I didn’t even know it was coming or I would have been there. My pictures wouldn’t have come out, however. I had a Practica EE2, their first electronic camera and most of the time it didn’t work. I finally got fed up and bought an Olympus OM-2n the following year.

stupid question

hello all

I don’t seem to remember where this beauty came from, but judging by her look I’d guess China Lake?

cheers

greg v

A sort of promise, I have scanned a faded Daily Telegragh photo and caption on this landing but couldn’t remember the date as I woz at school that day….

If I can find the cd I archived it on then I will attempt to post it. (don’t wait up I,m doing a qc check on a few bottle of Banrock Station .)

I’ve also found some slides of BBMF lanc at DX from same era starting up so if I can remember how to scan slides……

My B-26 shots were taken with a Zenit E!

😮 I was there, i was 17 years old and i rode up to Duxford on my 125 honda with my mate and his Dad.
I seem to remember the B29 looked abit worn out and smoked ,oily old thing.I wish i had a camera with me then 😮

Blimey!, 25 years ago, I was there working in the Essex Aviation Groups building and watched her come in , do I remember rightly that a tyre burst on landing or is that a figment of my imagination??.
As for the Invader, being there every Sunday as I was, I watched her fly out from Duxford to do the Biggin Hill display on the 21st September 1980.

Only seems like the other day when i saw the B29 fly over on its way to Mildenhall i was 8 at the time, how time passes by.

The Invader was still around at that time, not being lost until the September, although I believe that it had been moved to Biggin Hill by early-1980, where it continued to be based until the accident.

Sounds about right – the B29 had been there a little while when we next went, but when you are aged eight things tend to blur a bit with time!

Adrian

Those are some great shots! that most have been a great day. Too bad she is locked away.

Another B29 – ‘Doc’ – is being restored to fly by Boeing employees I believe. Haven’t heard any updates for a while though, so not sure how they’re getting on with it. There was also ‘Kee Bird’, but I’m not going to go there. 🙁

I was 11 when ‘Hawg Wild’ came over, and like some of you, hadn’t really been bitten by the bug yet. I can only sit here and imagine how awesome the B29 must have looked as she came in…

Yes Willy. For now, there is only ‘Fifi’. But I’m still young and I can wait (a little bit) longer.

Cheers,

J.V.

Jochen, to the best of my knowledge, there is only one flyiing B-29 in the world (CAF)