DOC AND FIFI, THE LAST SUPERFORTRESSES
African Pilot|December 2022
Owing to some trouble with an implacable Austrian corporal, a reticent Japanese emperor and a pathologically violent Italian prime minister, between 1942 and 1946 Boeing was compelled to build nearly four-thousand B-29 Superfortresses. The famously temperamental, pressurised, computerised bombers teetered precariously atop the pinnacle of reciprocating-engine technology and to this day and one hopes all days remain the only aircraft type to deliver nuclear ordnance in anger.
ATHOL FRANZ
DOC AND FIFI, THE LAST SUPERFORTRESSES

The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 Flying Fortress, the Superfortress was designed for high-altitude strategic bombing, but also excelled in low-altitude night incendiary bombing and in dropping naval mines to blockade Japan. B-29s dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only aircraft ever to drop nuclear weapons in combat.

One of the largest aircraft of World War II, the B-29 was designed with state-of-the-art technology, which included a pressurized cabin, dual-wheeled tricycle landing gear and an analogue computer-controlled fire-control system that allowed one gunner and a firecontrol officer to direct four remote machine gun turrets. The $3 billion cost of design and production (equivalent to $45 billion today), far exceeding the $1.9 billion cost of the Manhattan Project, made the B-29 programme the most expensive of the war. The B-29's advanced design allowed it to remain in service in various roles throughout the 1950s. The type was retired in the early 1960s, after 3,970 of them had been built. A few were also used as flying television transmitters by the Stratovision company. The Royal Air Force flew the B-29 as the Washington until 1954.

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