Waypoints: What’s up with 'Doc'?

Nearly 100 feet long and 141 feet wing tip to wing tip, the airplane dwarfed any airplane he’d known, including the B–24 Liberator in which he’d crashed into the Pacific Ocean 18 months earlier. While Zamperini had languished in a raft and then various Japanese POW camps, the world had moved on, and aviation progressed at a remarkable pace. Pressurized, fast, and capable of carrying up to 20,000 pounds of bombs, the B–29 was as advanced then as the B–2 Spirit bomber was when it first flew in 1989.

Zamperini’s first spotting of the Superfortress was a photo reconnaissance mission, mapping the path for wave after wave of B–29s to come—bombers that decimated Tokyo. Those raids and, of course, another B–29—Enola Gay with its nuclear payload—played a major role in ending the war.

The B–29, Doc, shining before me didn’t see such World War II action, but as one of only two flyable Superfortresses in the world, the airplane is an important tool to teach the history of the influential design and the role it played in ending the hostilities. And as a technological wonder of the time, it is a great platform to demonstrate to school students the principles of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)—a goal of the team of volunteers who spent 16 years and 400,000 hours restoring the massive machine.

Analog computers remotely controlled the external guns. Another computer measured the newly discovered jet stream and applied a wind correction calculation to the Norden bombsight, greatly improving the accuracy of high-altitude bombing runs. Pressurization, a novelty at the time, allowed crews to work in shirt sleeves, even when cruising for hours in the bitter cold at 30,000 feet. The B–29 has much to teach even 74 years after Doc first flew, according to Frank Berry, a volunteer flight crew member and member of the Doc’s Friends organization that owns the historic airplane (see “Memories from the Superfortress,” December 2018 AOPA Pilot).

On the day of my December visit to Doc, Berry and a team of volunteer mechanics, mostly retired from Boeing, Spirit AeroSystems, and Textron Aviation, were busy doing compression checks on the four Wright R-3350 engines, each with two rows of nine cylinders—supercharged and, originally, turbocharged. If you’re counting, that’s 144 spark plugs. The team is doing other winter maintenance, getting Doc ready for its second full season of airshows. Their work space and Doc’s home is bright and clean and brand-new—a dazzling new hangar at Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport in Kansas. Like Doc, it was built with donations and completed in December 2018, just in advance of the planned January 2019 public opening of the hangar.

With bright lights and a glass front facing the street, the hangar is designed to show off the pristine airplane, and it does that well. Drive by at night with the airplane beautifully lit inside—it will take your breath away.

Overhead, a mezzanine is home to enormous murals, thoughtful displays, and engaging videos showcasing the development of the B–29; its role in ending the war; Doc’s mission; the restoration; and plans for the future, which include fundraising to pay off the hangar and to fund scholarships and educational programs, according to Lynn Nichols, treasurer of the organization and chairman and CEO of Yingling Aviation, located just up the ramp. Nichols credits the entire Wichita community, hundreds of volunteers, and especially Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems with making the restoration and the hangar project happen.

Like some 1,640 others, Doc was built on the east side of Wichita at what was the Boeing factory—now Spirit. So it’s only fitting that the aircraft finds a new home there after decades of sitting in the desert Southwest—parked there as a missile target in the 1950s. In 2000 Doc arrived in Wichita on seven flatbed trucks. Carefully taken apart, damaged parts replaced, and everything corrosion protected, the B–29 will not need major airframe work for another 40 or 50 years, according to Berry.

Look for Doc at larger airshows this year and beyond, and if you can, pony up for a ride. You’ll never forget the experience, and the funds from your fee support the airplane and its mission. Learn more online.

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