A B-29-97BW modified to night bombing, Installed
radar in a ventral radome immediately behind the first
of the two lower turrets.
The acronym in the tube was adopted soon after "VJ Day"
(the day of Victory over Japan) and the letters were assigned BF
the B-29, and figures were the last of the military registration (in this case
45-21756).
The vertical stabilizer, the black circle of the 6 th Bomber Group,
with an arrow in the center, it replaced after the operations
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the "R", in August 1945
had been made to give a false indication of the aircraft
"Atomic Squadron" making them appear as belonging
to another unit.
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The first "giant" mass produced and used in military operations, the aircraft with the release of the first atomic bombs determined the rapid conclusion of hostilities in the East and opened the era of nuclear weapons, for Finally, due to a strange series of circumstances, the device that the USSR provided the key to air power to adapt itself to the technological standard of the United States and provided the means to balance the ability of these intercontinental bomber, setting the "balance of terror. " Such
importance in history, could not be worthy of a plane either. In fact, the "flying Superfortress" was the opposite: the sum of the entire U.S. scientific and industrial capacity to mobilize for a massive effort, the result of years of advanced research in all sectors of aviation technology, motors, electronics, equipment, materials and weapons.
The Model 334A can be considered the first true ancestor of the B-29, was introduced in July 1939 seemed so promising that Boeing took over the costs of conducting a life-size prototype, which was ready in December. In those days, the Chief of Staff of the USAAC was authorized to publish the requirements for a successor to the B-17 and B-24 , the January 29, 1940 the specifications were sent to Boeing, Douglas, Consolidated and Lockheed. The Boeing, which meanwhile had continued to develop his project coming to the model 341 (larger and, above all, with new wing profile), in the spring reworked it again in the Model 345, characterized by the appearance of the turrets remote-for almost all of the defensive armament, and the posts after the landing gear with dual wheels which retracted into the inner engine nacelles instead of flat on the wing, they were practically all the features Highlights of future B-29.
The B-29 was a sleek all-metal four-engined mid-wing, tricycle landing gear and empennage previous monoderiva shrink.
The most technically advanced part of the Superfortress from the point of view of aerodynamics, was undoubtedly the wing, carried out in laminar profiles and characterized by a high aspect ratio (11.49), and fitted with sliding flaps that refined Landing on the surface increased about 20%.
The fuselage, of aerodynamics and of circular section, composed essentially of a cylindrical section and a conical section joined together, was also semi-monocoque structure, coated sheet reinforced with transverse ribs and many transverse stringers. This consisted of three main structural elements, the middle section attached to the wing and in which tanks were located bomb, the previous section, containing the cockpit, and the back cone, to which were attached the stabilizers: The crew, commonly composed of ten or eleven people, was housed in the large pressurized tube in previous comparisons, also pressurized rear fuselage cone. These two compartments were connected by a cylindrical tunnel alrrededor of 85 cm in diameter running through the bomb bay, while the defensive line position, also pressurized, was isolated in flying height.
Stabilizers plant that had the same shape as those of B-17, were made of a triple-derived crossbar attached to the fuselage by the large dorsal fin, and a double stabilizer spar, which were articulated the helm and the two Semi-raised respectively
The B-29 engines were double those of eighteen cylinders star Wright "Cyclone" R-3350-23 approximately 55 liters of displacement, gear type whose constant speed and feathering device, allowed the use of considerable propeller diameter (5055 m) and high performance. Its centrifugal compressor mechanically driven supercharger, along with two General Electric gas turbochargers download installed on each motor gondolas (with the respective groups interrefrigeración), allowed them to deliver maximum power of 2,332 hp at 7,620 meters of height, but the same power was quite inadequate for an aircraft of the weight of B-29 and, in fact, the four-engine Boeing reach maturity only with the installation of more powerful Ptatt & Whitney R-4360-35 3,549 horses adopted in the later B-50.
The War Office funded with $ 85,652 to Boeing by further data on the aerodynamics of the Model 345, on June 14, 1940, the day of the occupation of Paris by the Germans. E'27 other funds and were awarded a contract from September 6 provided for the construction of two prototypes with the initials XB-29 (later increased to three) plus a static test cell.
The first XB-29 (registration 41-002) without arms, began flights on 21 September 1942; was followed by the second (41-003) characterized by the three-bladed propellers and retractable turrets, as planned for the Model 345, while the third (41-18335) was passed to the turret will not shrink, if the type and Sperry targeted through periscopes while since the first of the 14 YB-29 adopting the General Electric system with the aim from hemispheric transparent bubble.
A B-29A was equipped with Pratt & Whitney R-4360 (28 cylinders in four stars) of 3,548 horses taking the initials XB-44, the standard version should be the B-29D, but respective order was canceled with the end of the war, and when it resumed in 1946, the acronym was changed to B-50.
The USAF used several B-29 for the launch of experimental aircraft (including the X-1 rocket plane, which was the first to develop supersonic speeds on October 14, 1947), including the "parasite fighter" Mc Donnell XF-85, which was expected to ride aboard the massive B-36.
For actions with atomic bombs was established with 15 variously modified B-29, 393 Squadron (VH), the 509th Composite Group: August 6 1945, the airplane "Enola Gay" unhooked first atomic bomb (the "Little Boy") on Hiroshima, and 9 of that same month, the "Fat Boy" was disengaged by the B-29 named "Bock 's car" on Nagasaki.
The July 29, 1944, a B-29 771 Squadron of 462 GB, returning from a mission in Anshan, in Manchuris, was hit by antiaircraft artillery and Captain Howard R. Jarrell, unable to reach the base of Kiunglai China, decided to land in Siberia, ie in Soviet territory, relying on the state of alliance between the U.S. and the USSR. The Russian fighter is a threat received in the plane and forced it to land on Tavricianka, near Vladivostok, the crew was carried inland, and the hijacked plane. The same fate befell other two B-29, 11 and 21 November respectively.
Information obtained from the work Storia del Aviazione.
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