B-29 ‘Doc’ is another step closer to taking flight
.jpg "Volunteers install the flaps on the B-29 Superfortress known as “Doc.” The plane is being restored inside a Boeing Wichita hangar.")
The B-29 Superfortess called “Doc,” which is being restored inside a Boeing Wichita hangar, is closer to getting back in the air, volunteers say.
Work on the flaps – the last major structural piece to be installed onto the aircraft as part of a years-long restoration project – has been completed.
More than 30 volunteers helped with the installation.
Progress on other remaining key components, including the fuel cells and avionics, is also advancing smoothly, organizers report.
“It has been incredible to witness the dedication of all the volunteers supporting Doc’s Friends throughout this journey,” TJ Norman, Doc’s Friends operations manager, said in a statement. “Taking the time out of their own week to work on this aircraft just shows the unified passion we all share to get this warbird back in the air.”
The bomber is expected to fly again by the end of this year.
The plan is for the airplane to be based in Wichita but to also have it serve as a traveling museum and exhibition.
The bomber was designed and built in 1944 inside Boeing Wichita’s Plant II and was one of a squadron of eight airplanes named for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
The plane under restoration was built too late to fly bombing missions during World War II. It served as a radar trainer during the Korean War.
Tony Mazzolini, backed by the United States Aviation Museum in Cleveland, rescued Doc from the Mojave Desert in California, where it had spent 42 years as a sanctuary for birds and other desert creatures.
In 1987, he formed a plan to restore the airplane and eventually contacted Jeff Turner, who was then at Boeing, for help.
Turner told Mazzolini if he could get the plane to Wichita, he would get help putting the plane back in the air.
On May 19, 2000, it arrived in Wichita by truck.
Doc’s Friends is a nonprofit organization formed by a group of Wichita business leaders to complete the restoration of the B-29 to flying condition.
Reach Molly McMillin at 316-269-6708 or mmcmillin@wichitaeagle.com. Follow her on Twitter: @mmcmillin.
This story was originally published September 16, 2014 at 2:52 PM with the headline "B-29 ‘Doc’ is another step closer to taking flight."