The
purposes of the U. S. AIRPOWER JOURNAL are to stimulate interest and aid in
the education of individuals and organizations concerning the influence of
aviation; to provide support and encouragement for research into the recovery
and restoration of aircraft from around the world; to engage in the
publication of a journal of recorded history, a newsletter of appropriate
writings and to provide a forum for exchange of information.
The
United States Airpower Museum and
U. S. AIRPOWER Journal is a Non-Profit corporation, founded in 2001,
and incorporated under the laws of the State of California and the Internal
Revenue Service as a 501 (C-3) tax-exempt corporation.
Membership
is on a calendar year basis with dues renewable in December. The Member will
receive quarterly issues of the U.S. AIRPOWER journal. Annual dues are $ 60.00. Tax- deductible.
Make checks or money orders payable to: U.S.A.M. 559-291-1239 USAIRPOWERMUSEUM
@ aol.com.
Copyright
© 2001 by the United States Airpower Museum, U. S. AIRPOWER Journal. All
rights are reserved. Contents of the U. S. AIRPOWER Journal may not be
reproduced with out written permission of the United States Airpower Museum.
The
U. S. AIRPOWER Journal is published quarterly by the United States Airpower
Museum.
William
E. Dietzel, Chairman of the Board. United States Airpower Museum, Publisher
and Editor, U. S. AIRPOWER Journal
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Rita
Kerr
Leon
Emo
Lee
Webster
Tim
Springer
Linda
McChesney
Jeanette
Dietzel
Cindy
Tomcak
Barbara
Blauvelt
William
Keith Dietzel
U. S. AIRPOWER MUSEUM
EDITORIAL
William E. Dietzel
Why
do we collect, restore and preserve back to flying condition the magnificent
warplanes of yesteryear 1939-1945, those fast-receding years of World War II?
Time passes, after all. Heroes grow old and memories fade. A worn-out plane makes one last fight, then...switches are flipped off, engines whisper into silence. It is rolled away to a tie-down, stripped of armament and instruments, then dismantled and trucked off to the smelter, or abandoned to rust and weather It's a miracle that any are left to see.
America
proved that they could demobilize even faster than it mobilized. and thousands
of aircraft were dispose of brutally. Some spent months or years baking in the
desert sun before being cut up to become pots and pans; others were simply
crumpled by bulldozers and dumped into land fill. It was not only the return
to peace that caused the wastage; the debut of the jet engine seemed to render
any World War II airplane obsolete.
One men's
determination, Mr. Tony Mazzolini saved B-29 Superfortress s/n 44-69972 “
DOC” 53 years after World War II, by negotiating with the Department of the
Navy for 16 years, before acquiring the aircraft from the United States Naval
Weapons Center at Chair Lake, California. This is only one example how saving
aviation artifacts continue. Undoubtedly
part of the lure of these machines is the satisfaction of transforming a
battered and rusted hulk into an accurately, painstaking restored showpiece
and the restorer experiences a sense of fulfillment. Restoration calls for all
the elements of backyard, shade tree, and mechanical genius to be combined
with the evaluative eye of a surgeon, Can a piston be swapped from one engine
to another? How much metal will
have to be replaced when the reskinning starts?
When you are
finished, the layman will admire the airplane extravagantly, but the experts
lurking out there who will not hesitate to point out that Technical Order,
1794478. a military document dated 3 August 1943, moved the fuel stencil eight
inches to the left of where you have it.
If you have to strip the paint and repaint it to move the stencil,
well, that's the price of perfection.
In this case, money isn't the issues -it's a matter of honor.
BRING HOME THE B-29 SUPERFORTRESS
“ KEE BIRD” FROM ITS ARCTIC GRAVE
Thule Air Force Base: Greenland. One
of the most remote and isolated military outposts of the United States Air
Force. On an inhospitable barren shore of northwest Greenland, deep inside the
Arctic Circle. The climate is harsh and unforgiving. Even in summer, where the
sun never sets, it remains so cold that the sea is littered with icebergs
inland, a vast unbroken icecap stretches for eight hundred miles. 250 miles
north of Thule Air Force Base, Greenland there is a B-29 Superfortress
aircraft which crash-landed in 1947 while on a classified mission and was
subsequently abandoned by the United States Air Force.
NOVA,
Public Broadcasting System TV broadcast 1996 (“B-29 Frozen in Time”) Amazon.Com
documented a previous heroic attempt and now the B-29 Superfortress “Kee
Bird” aircraft is an international legend in aviation history. The
1996 recovery team consisting of a flight crew and experienced B-29 aircraft
mechanics found the aircraft to be in remarkably fine condition even after 50
years of abandonment on the Arctic tundra. This team serviced the aircraft,
using reconditioned engines and propellers, and restored the aircraft to flight worthy condition.
During these maintenance activities the recovery team built a serviceable
landing strip for the B-29 to take off and for cargo aircraft transporting
supplies to the site. After
restoring the aircraft back to flying condition the aircraft was now ready for
fly. A thorough pre flight and several successful engine run-ups, a takeoff
was planned. Maximum power had to be used to break the wheels from the frozen
mud. The crew taxied the aircraft to the strip and roared down the runway for
a takeoff. An unexpected ice build up near the end of the strip bounced and
severely shook the aircraft. The flight crew found themselves no longer able
to control the aircraft and the take off had to be aborted. During the
take off attempt the auxiliary power unit in the rear compartment broke loose
from its mounting, a fuel line ruptured, and the gas caught fire in the rear
of the aircraft, a flash fire moved up the tunnel across the bomb bay into the
cockpit.
The entire
crew miraculously escaped without injury.
The fire consumed the fuselage B-29 “Kee Bird” an irreplaceable
treasure of aviation history and with it goes years of planning and hard work
by so many dictated airmen.
Despite the
damage incurred by the aircraft during this takeoff attempt and the subsequent
fire, the recoverable and extremely valuable parts are as follows:
a. The salvageable
remains of the empennage
b. The center wing section and outer wings.
c. Four reconditioned, zero time,
Wright R-3350-23radial engines with cowling.
d. 16
reconditioned, zero time, Hamilton Standard
propeller blades.
e. The vertical and
horizontal stabilizers.
B-29 SUPERFORTRESS “ KEE BIRD”
BECAME A LEGEND IN AVIATION HISTORY
The United States Airpower Museum respectfully requests sponsorship and
support in the recovery of extremely valuable parts from the downed B-29
Superfortress aircraft located 250 miles north of Thule, Greenland located on
the arctic icecap. Out of
approximately four thousand that were manufactured during World War II, there
is currently only one B-29 Superfortress flying in the world.
The United States Airpower Museum has ready a qualified Arctic Recovery
Team who are experienced in recovery, disassembling and transportation of
military aircraft.
AOL/
Timer Warner has the ability to provide live video satellite up link from the
Arctic icecap of the recovery of a World War II B-29 Superfortress. The
satellite would be linked to a sponsor’s front page on the Internet.
Producing live pictures of the recovery, disassembling and transporting of the
World War II B-29 Superfortress back to America.
The web site will be seen by millions of people thru out the world.
Aviation, military and adventures person and the other 120 million people who
have computers. NOVA PBS-TV has shown interest in filming a follow up
documentary, which opens the door for sponsorship identification on
international Public Broadcasting Television.
The United
States Airpower Museum budget to support this expedition is $500,000.00, Your
Donation is Tax-Exempt.
Come join us in this once in a lifetime adventure “RETURN TO GLORY” a World War II B-29 Superfortress.
Cabbage Leaves
&
Orange Peels
By
William E. Dietzel
"No this is not a world famous receipt for a
gourmet salad" , Bona Petite.
Cabbage
leaves and orange peels are names of the cowling that surrounds the R-3350
engine on a B-29 Superfortress and this is the story of how this engine came
to be.
In
the week after Pearl Harbor the Army Air Forces set out to perfect and produce
as quickly as unlimited money and energy could do it, the then largest and
most powerful aircraft engine in the world with which to drive a new bomber to
carry a bigger load faster, faster and higher than any existing plane., this
was to be the B-29 Superfortress.
In
the first days of 1942 Chrysler Corporation was asked to build, equip and
operate, as the largest source of this engine, one of the world's greatest
manufacturing plants, which did not yet exist even on paper. The plant must be
built either in Chicago or Milwaukee, the Government said. It must be rushed
to completion in the shortest possible time. It would represent about 5% of
all Air Force spending. The machining and assembly building alone. covered 82
acres, though only 1 story high, it had more floor space than Washington's
Pentagon building or Chicago's Merchandise Mart.
To
power the B-29 Superfortress the war department had chosen a Wright Cyclone
18- cylinder engine which had been undergoing test and redesign since 1936, as
the only design at all near engineering approval which had the power to drive
the new long-range high flying B-29 Superfortress.
In
normal course of things, the B-29 Superfortress and this engine would not have
been ready before 1946. In time of peace a new aircraft engine is as much as
two and half years from drawing board to an experimental job on a test stand,
another year or more to production in quantities. New planes normally are
flight tested, modified again and again before production order. But of
desperate necessity, the Air Force was trying to cut this time by two thirds.
The engine of the B-29 Superfortress would turn out 2200 horse power with no
increase in frontal area, cylinder displacement, bore or stroke.
This
is the power of an ordinary freight locomotive; three Diesel units usually
draw a modern streamline train such as the Super chief or the City
of San Francisco each of 2,000 horsepower, 6,000 horsepower to the
train.
The
four engines of the B-29 have 8,800 horsepower, more than a third again as
much. The new plane and new
engine, unproved as of January 1942. knocked Japan out of the war in 1945.
When Japan's surrender terminated Chrysler's contract, 18,413 engines had been
built and shipped from Chicago.
As
for the R-3350, it first flew in 1941 in the B-19 which was Douglas
Company’s huge test airplane, Now 60 years later the engine is still powers
the fastest prop plane in history-the Grumman build- “ Rare Bear”, it has
been clocked at 571 mph producing 4,200 horsepower; it flies in the unlimited
class of races at the Reno Air Races
Someday
you’re going to run across a World War II artifact.
High in
the foothills of the Sierra Mountains out side of Oakhurst, California I was
inspecting a parcel of property for future mobile home site. The property had
an old barn down the hill and I noticed setting in the knee high weeds an
object that was not consistent with the rest of the old farm equipment. I
turned to Steven Floras the owner and ask what is that? Steven said believed
it was gun turret off of B-24 Bomber and he wasn’t really sure about that.
Well the
measuring stopped and down the hill we went to look at this newfound aviation
artifact. I picked it up 10 years ago in a junkyard in Madera and brought it
home said Steven. I was going to
make a space ship for by son but never got around to it. Since then the kids
have broken out the glass and one part is missing, “Would you like to have
it for the Museum?” Yes was the
next words from by mouth.
TBF REAR GUN TURRET
GRUMMAN TBF AVENGER
U. S. AIRPOWER MUSEUM
The
U. S. Airpower Museum is negotiating for a location at one of the most ideal
sites in Central California. The museum location on the frontage road to a
highway 99 (between Avenues 17 and 18, fronting Highway 99 to the west) north
of Madera, California 4 miles, with off and on ramps both immediately north
and south, The City of Madera airport is within a ¼ mile of the museum site.
Approximately 10 acres across the road from the future YOSEMITE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
that will be completed and operating in the spring of 2002. The Yosemite Motor
Speedway California’s
Premier Speedway with 56,000
Seats and six races a year on what is going to be the fastest one-mile
speedway in the world! The new museum will feature a 200-seat restaurant named
“ The Flying Lady” and the museum will have two 12,500 square foot
buildings to display the military aircraft and memorabilia
The
U.S. Airpower Museum is dedicated to collecting, restoring and displaying
historic aircraft of the World War II and the Korean Conflict eras. This
unique Museum pays special tribute to military aviation and reminds us all of
the significant role these airplanes, their pilots and support crews played in
securing our freedom. To demonstrate the sights and sounds of these
high-powered machines, most of this magnificent collection is maintained in
flying condition. These aircraft provide public enjoyment while in actual
flight. The Museum will feature various educational programs, exhibits and
special events that help preserve our heritage and promote pride in our
country.
