Here's an interesting article on the B-29 from a former WWII B29 pilot:

“FiFi, a four-engine B-29 Boeing Superfortress and the only example of the World War II-era aircraft still flying,

The CAF has kept Fifi flying for over 40 years. We estimate it costs about $10,000 an hour, including maintenance costs, and we burn about 400 gallons of aviation gas per hour. We figure annual costs at about $750,000,” Pardon said."

https://www.ocala.com/article/...1/News/604139636/OS/

If you have the opportunity, I would absolutely pay the money and fly on her......I fly on a radial T-6 texan from time to time and the entire airport in Fort Lauderdale stops what they're doing once we fire up and watches us taxi down to the runway and take off, every time.

Doc lives here, see it fairly often. This is a pic I took from the back door of Chez Clubleaf.

Does anybody know if Doc will eventually get the four gun turrets installed?

I toured Fifi on the ground in 1988, and I still have very fond memories of the experience.

https://youtu.be/_t3akMEm9bI

Video on B29 engine factory. The B29 was the most expensive weapon in WWII. 2nd was atom bomb

I live just off the air strip all CAS and the like aircraft use when they visit the DC area. It can be a bit noisy at times (although I admit I like it) but it has the great advantage of being able to see both FiFi and Doc take off and fly over my house. In hindsight I wish I was a better photographer

I got a bombardier seat ride in FiFi a few years ago up in Dubuque, it was worth every penny. IIRC, it was $1500 and some was deductible (under the old rules) as a donation to CAF. My co-pilot was Jeff Skiles, better known as Sully's co-pilot on USAir 1649.

After landing we got to visit nearly every nook and cranny of the plane. The tunnel was open but we were not allow to crawl through.

The US tour is off for 2020, the Ft Worth Museum is also closed.

https://www.airpowersquadron.org/

https://vintageflyingmuseum.org/

Here's something you don't see every day >>>

I got a nice video and a bunch of still pics. I'll have to figure out how to get the video posted as well as the pics. Anybody know how and where to to get a video up? I'm wondering if it might be easier to start a youtube channel?

Here is an article from the local newspaper, it's behind a paywall so I'll copy and paste here. I thought it was interesting. I'll include the link anyway just in case.
Hopefully the reporter got the facts straight for the story ......................


WWII-era B-29 bomber makes visit to OKC with special crew onboard

BETHANY — Donnie Obreiter stood on the wings of a B-29 Superfortress as the hot afternoon sun beat down on him. He checked the oil in each of the plane’s four engines while his son, Davey, stood beside him.

Working on airplanes is a way of life for Donnie Obreiter, but doing so with his son is an experience unlike any other.

“There isn’t anything that’s not cool about this,” Donnie Obreiter said.

Four years after volunteers completed an extensive restoration of the plane, “Doc” — one of only two operational B-29 Superfortress bombers in the world — landed at the Wiley Post Airport with the Oklahoma father-and-son duo on board.

The Obreiters are aircraft mechanics at Altus Air Force Base. Donnie Obreiter helps maintain the Boeing KC-46 Pegasus, the U.S. Air Force’s newest refueling tanker plane. Davey Obreiter works on the KC-135 Stratotanker, the Air Force’s oldest tanker.

Davey is a crew chief on the B-29, and Donnie is the flight chief. Donnie is one of only eight flight engineers in the world licensed to operate the B-29. He’s responsible for inspecting and maintaining the plane, and he controls the airplane’s engines while in flight.

“The pilots steer the plane, and I control the throttles,” he said.

Doc was built by the Boeing Company in March 1945 at the company’s Wichita, Kansas, factory. One of 1,644 B-29s built, Doc rolled off the assembly line just months before another B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on Japan, ending World War II.
The B-29 has four engines, and each engine holds 85 gallons of oil. The plane’s two fuel tanks — housed in its wings — carry a total of roughly 5,500 gallons. From wing tip to wing tip, the plane stretches 141 feet.

Doc was one of seven B-29s used in radar calibration training for the Air Force. The squadron was known as the Seven Dwarfs, and that’s where Doc got its name. The only other operational B-29 left in the world — named Fifi — was in the same squadron.

The Air Force retired Doc in 1955, parking the plane in the Mojave Desert to be used as a target during bomb training for pilots. A team of volunteers trucked the plane in pieces back to Wichita in 2000 to begin restoring it.

Donnie started working on B-29s roughly 18 years ago when he joined the Commemorative Air Force, a Dallas-based non-profit organization working to preserve vintage military aircraft.

When volunteers from across the Midwest started restoring Doc in 2000, they called Donnie for help. Volunteers spent more than 400,000 hours repairing the plane before it took to the skies once again on July 17, 2016. Since then, the plane has flown to points all over the United States, including Washington, D.C. — and, of course, Oklahoma.

Taking care of Doc takes time. The Obreiters have made the long drive from Altus to Wichita three times in the last month to work on the plane and help fly it.

“Any time this airplane leaves town, we’re going to be with it,” Donnie said.

Keeping Doc in the air is something the Obreiters hope to do for decades to come. Donnie is training his son to take on more responsibilities for the plane’s operation.

“On his training flight back, he’s actually taking over my position as flight engineer,” Donnie said. “I couldn’t be more proud of him and what he does for the Air Force, and what he does for Doc. To me, that’s the coolest thing ever, that I could see him being involved with this airplane.”

Davey has grown up around airplanes, and he’s glad to learn more about the B-29 from his father.

“Someone’s got to learn the job if we want to continue our mission to keep this wonderful warbird flying and to keep teaching the next person, and their kids, and their kids’ kids,” Davey said. “And the other good thing is, if I do mess up, he’s not going to sugarcoat anything. He’s going to tell me why, when, and how I messed up.”

For the Obreiters, Oklahoma isn’t just a flyover state. It’s their home state. And bringing Doc home together? That’s an honor.

“When you look at what this airplane means to the Doc family, to those that have come before us and not lived to see today, it is huge in what it represents in addition to the Greatest Generation, both through World War II into Korea,” Donnie said. “It shaped the world, if you will. I am extremely proud to bring this machine back to our home state with my son. Of all the places we’ve taken this plane, I’m always the proudest to bring it back home to Oklahoma.”

Link to story
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