These systems were accurate enough to enable relatively accurate bombing through cloud layers that completely obscured the target. Depending on the type of mission, a B-29 carried the AN/APQ-13 or AN/APQ-7 Eagle radar system to aid bombing and navigation. Boeing also equipped the B-29 with advanced radar equipment and avionics. They aimed the guns using computerized sights, and each gunner could take control of two or more turrets to concentrate firepower on a single target.
Gunners operated these turrets by remote control-a true innovation. 50 caliber machine guns and a 20-mm cannon (in early versions of the B-29) were fitted in the tail beneath the rudder. One of these turrets fired from behind the nose gear and the other hung further back near the tail.
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50 caliber machine guns (four guns in later versions), and another turret aft near the vertical tail equipped with two machine guns plus two more turrets beneath the fuselage, each equipped with two. Engineers placed five gun turrets on the fuselage: a turret above and behind the cockpit that housed two. To protect the Superfortress, Boeing designed a remote-controlled, defensive weapons system. For the crew, flying at altitudes above 18,000 feet became much more comfortable as pressure and temperature could be regulated in the crew work areas. More revolutionary was the size and sophistication of the pressurized sections of the fuselage: the flight deck forward of the wing, the gunner's compartment aft of the wing, and the tail gunner's station. This wing design allowed the B-29 to cruise at high speeds at high altitudes but maintained comfortable handling characteristics during slower airspeeds necessary during takeoff and landing. Among the design's innovations was a long, narrow, high-aspect ratio wing equipped with large Fowler-type flaps. In April 1941, the Army issued another contract for 250 aircraft plus spare parts equivalent to another 25 bombers, eight months before Pearl Harbor and nearly a year-and-a-half before the first Superfortress would fly. The Army was impressed with the Boeing design and issued a contract for two flyable prototypes in September 1940. Boeing, Consolidated, Douglas, and Lockheed responded with design proposals. It described an airplane that could carry a maximum bomb load of 909 kg (2,000 lb) at a speed of 644 kph (400 mph) a distance of at least 8,050 km (5,000 miles). Several years of preliminary studies paralleled a continuous fight against those who saw limited utility in developing such an expensive and unproven aircraft but the Air Corps issued a requirement for the new bomber in February 1940. Army Air Corps leaders recognized the need for very long-range bombers that exceeded the performance of the B-17 Flying Fortress. On August 14, 1945, the Japanese accepted Allied terms for unconditional surrender. Enola Gay flew as the advance weather reconnaissance aircraft that day. Sweeney piloted the B-29 Bockscar and dropped a highly enriched plutonium, implosion-type atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. Tibbets, Jr., in command of the Superfortress Enola Gay, dropped a highly enriched uranium, explosion-type, "gun-fired," atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. During the war in the Pacific Theater, the B-29 delivered the first nuclear weapons used in combat. Boeing installed very advanced armament, propulsion, and avionics systems into the Superfortress. Long Description Boeing's B-29 Superfortress was the most sophisticated, propeller-driven, bomber to fly during World War II, and the first bomber to house its crew in pressurized compartments. A third B-29, The Great Artiste, flew as an observation aircraft on both missions. Air Force Museum near Dayton, Ohio) dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. Three days later, Bockscar (on display at the U.S. On August 6, 1945, this Martin-built B-29-45-MO dropped the first atomic weapon used in combat on Hiroshima, Japan. In the Pacific, B-29s delivered a variety of aerial weapons: conventional bombs, incendiary bombs, mines, and two nuclear weapons. Although designed to fight in the European theater, the B-29 found its niche on the other side of the globe. Summary Boeing's B-29 Superfortress was the most sophisticated propeller-driven bomber of World War II and the first bomber to house its crew in pressurized compartments.
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Polished aluminum finish overall, standard late-World War II Army Air Forces insignia on wings and aft fuselage and serial number on vertical fin 509th Composite Group markings painted in black "Enola Gay" in black, block letters on lower left nose.
Physical Description Four-engine heavy bomber with semi-monoqoque fuselage and high-aspect ratio wings. Object Details Manufacturer Boeing Aircraft Co.