DOC AND FIFI, THE LAST SUPERFORTRESSES

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

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.