In 1947, the Russians began flying the Tu-4 bomber, a reverse-engineered dead ringer for the B-29.
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Source: US Air Force Museum In 1944, three B-29s made emergency landings at Vladivostok and were ―interned‖ by the Russians. Performance figures varied with conditions, such as altitude, weight, aircraft configuration, etc. After World War II, the B- 29 continued in service, flying its last combat mission- reconnaissance over North Korea-in July 1953. The B– 29 is most famous as the aircraft that delivered the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. From the Marianas, B-29s flew 16-hour round trip missions against Japan. It entered service in April 1944 in India, but came into its own when the Mariana Islands (Guam, Saipan, and Tinian)-1300 miles southeast of Tokyo-were captured in August 1944 and the Army Air Forces gained bases there. The B-29 was the only airplane with the range and other capabilities to conduct heavy bomber operations against the Japanese homeland. It was manufactured in four locations: Boeing plants in Renton, Wash., and Wichita, Kan., the Bell plant at Marietta, Ga., and the Martin plant in Omaha, Neb. The machine guns, except for two in the tail turret, were fired by remote control.
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machine guns in five turrets, plus a 20 mm cannon in the tail.
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It also had advanced propulsion, avionics, numerous innovations, such as pressurized crew compartments. The B-29, which began flight tests in September 1942, brought new advantages in speed, range, and bomb load. Work had begun in 1940 on a ―very heavy bomber‖ project, the outcome of which would be the B-29 Superfortress.
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But on closer examination, it's hard to see who can truly benefit when truth is tossed out the window (excluding the bit of political mileage gained by congressional representatives who took up the veterans' cause).AFA’s Enola Gay Controversy Archive Collection The Smithsonian and the Enola Gay From the Air Force Association’s Enola Gay Controversy archive collection Online at The Airplane The B-29 Aircraft In the early years of World War II, the Army Air Forces had two heavy bombers, the B-17 Flying Fortress and the B-24 Liberator. Veterans' groups, who said the exhibit was too sympathetic to Japan and waged a public campaign to get it changed, count themselves as winners in the debate. The exhibit that was planned to accompany the plane, "The Last Act: The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II," has been cancelled after more than a year of controversy. On January 30, the Smithsonian Institution announced that, beginning in May, the front 56 feet of the Enola Gay's fuselage will be displayed alone in the Air and Space Museum, accompanied only by a video of recollections from its flight crew. For many others, the Enola Gay is the symbol of the unleashing of a terrifying, sinister, world-changing force the start of the nuclear age. The bomb, they feel, was the only alternative to a bloody, massive invasion of Japan. When is a fuselage not just a fuselage? To many World War II veterans, the Enola Gay-the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima-is an icon of their deliverance.