Looks like it, though as was said there is still a lot of work to do.
__________________
"Success is not Final, Failure is not Fatal, it is the Courage to Continue that Counts"
Sir Winston Churchill
"To him the People of the World Largely owe the Freedom and Liberties they Enjoy Today"
Enscription on Hugh Dowding's (AOC Fighter Command 1936-40) statue in London
Here is another update from Bill Copeland as posted on the B29 website. (http://b-29.org/)
Interestingly, he went to an old AAF base nearby and took alook at it. It used to be a B29 training field.
"I made a furtive visit to Peyote AAFB yesterday. The 3,000 plus acres sits in the middle of the Permian Basin adjacent to a prison for juvenile
delinquents. The only life Amos and I saw were deer and rabbits.. no snakes.
The runways and flightline are still intact but need a good mowing. Hundreds of concrete slabs that were the foundations for housing ,offices and shops are everywhere. Two walls of the largest hangar still stand.. The rails and reveals for the doors are intact but the huge glass doors are gone. 3 murals are barely visible in what were the corners of the hangar. One remembers Pearl Harbor. One shows Rosenthal's picture of the Marines raising the Flag on Suribachi. The last shows a Crocker Spaniel resting it's head on a coffin..barely visible are the words "Because Somebody Talked".
The mile long flightline is intact but every crack and seam has desert grass growing in it. Eye level looking outward it looks like a sea of grass. As you walk you can see the cement below you. We walked out to the runways and the story was much the same but the grass didn't have seams to get started in. The asphalt is puckering and cracked but looks like it could still be used as intended.
Adjacent to the hangar is the steam plant. It is intact and waiting for a
load of coal to heat the hangar. On a raised slab is a bunker like building
with one steel and cement door that still swings easily. I think this vault
was enclosed in another building and probably used for ammo. Bomb bunkers are not visible. The main gate is now a Texas History stop. The low walled portal was built by German Pows that were interned nearby.
The modest museum is about a mile away from the the old base. Mrs. Rivas is the caretaker and is helpful after you warm her up a bit. Like Bud said, the 19th is well represented re it's early service in the Pacific and a couple of pictures from the Korean war are displayed. If you are going to visit it is open Saturday 9 to 6 and Sunday 2 til 6. No admission fee.. they run strictly on donations.
FIFI is improving.. the wing should go on in a couple of days.
The pic of the cracked fitting shows one of the problems found with the bomb doors.. no wonder they wouldn't work. Fixed now.
Best to all,
Bill&Amos
CAF main hangar
Midland
__________________ "Pilot to copilot..... what are those mountain goats doing up here in the clouds?"
Interesting pics syscom, good to see it coming along well.
__________________
"Success is not Final, Failure is not Fatal, it is the Courage to Continue that Counts"
Sir Winston Churchill
"To him the People of the World Largely owe the Freedom and Liberties they Enjoy Today"
Enscription on Hugh Dowding's (AOC Fighter Command 1936-40) statue in London
Great stuff! My hat's off to those guys. We are working on a PBJ at Camarillo and it is a lot of work. That's about half the work of the B-29 though. Big job, and I am glad that these guys are dedicated enough to do it, especially since they are all volunteers.
Wherever their bones may lie, the courage of heroes is consecrated in the hearts and engraved in the history of the free. Lt Col Honner DSO MC, 39th Commander speaking of the dead from the battle of Kokoda.
Very cool! I like the wing tooling they have to move those outter wings around, the photos that shows the wing being stripped shows pretty beefy tooling I wonder if that's original production tooling??
__________________ "IF ITS RED OR DUSTY, DON'T TOUCH IT"
Very cool! I like the wing tooling they have to move those outter wings around, the photos that shows the wing being stripped shows pretty beefy tooling I wonder if that's original production tooling??
They probably bought it from a surplus sale at Willow Run, heheheheheheh
__________________ "Pilot to copilot..... what are those mountain goats doing up here in the clouds?"
The long ranges the B29 flew meant fuel consupmtion figures and optimum settings for cruise were extremely important. The author of this story developed some very handy slide rules that undoubtabley made the difference in whether a crew was going to make it back to base, or go for a swim.
"Plucked out of graduate school after Pearl Harbor, a young physicist designed specialized slide rules for military aircraft. Trying them out aboard B-29s in the war against Japan, he had some hair-raising adventures."
Read the rest of the story at his website.
__________________ "Pilot to copilot..... what are those mountain goats doing up here in the clouds?"
The long ranges the B29 flew meant fuel consupmtion figures and optimum settings for cruise were extremely important. The author of this story developed some very handy slide rules that undoubtabley made the difference in whether a crew was going to make it back to base, or go for a swim.
"Plucked out of graduate school after Pearl Harbor, a young physicist designed specialized slide rules for military aircraft. Trying them out aboard B-29s in the war against Japan, he had some hair-raising adventures."
Read the rest of the story at his website.
These are still used today insome aircraft.
The P-3 and the C-130 has one to figure fuel consumption and weight and balance, the most common one still used today by private pilots is the old E6B, it is just about unchanged since WW2, basically a circular slide rule...
__________________ "IF ITS RED OR DUSTY, DON'T TOUCH IT"
They aren't leaking, they're marking their territory. 
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