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.
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