B-29 bomber ‘Doc’ arrives at world’s biggest air show

Jack Pelton, the former CEO of the Cessna Aircraft Co., and now the head of the Experimental Aircraft Association, tried to describe just how big the EAA AirVenture show is.

“This is the biggest air show in the entire world,” Pelton said.

“It’s a weeklong event of half a million people. We get about 20,000 airplanes coming and going which makes it the biggest airport in the world. Everything you want to see in aviation is here for one week.”

What everyone wanted to see was the shiny silver airplane from Wichita, Kansas.

“Doc,” the restored B-29 that was brought from a grave in the Mojave desert in 2000, to airworthiness again after a 16-year restoration process in Wichita, landed in Oshkosh, Wisconsin at around 4:30 p.m. Saturday. Spectators lined the runway, and some even ran alongside as the plane taxied toward its parking spot.

Tony Mazzolini, the man who discovered “Doc” at a bombing range at the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station in 1987, and eventually brought it to Wichita, stood on the tarmac and marveled at the sight of “Doc” arriving to center stage at the world’s biggest air show.

“I never realized I’d get it this far,” he said.

“It’s hard to believe, but thank God it’s here.”

The crew members who arrived with the plane, most of whom worked as volunteers in the plane’s restoration, were emotional about the crowd’s reaction to “Doc.”

“I dreamed of it. I couldn’t imagine it, but I dreamed of it,” said Dan Wimberly, a flight scanner who volunteered hundreds of hours in the restoration.

Ken Newell, the plane’s flight engineer gathered the crew together after the plane was parked and secured for a post-flight briefing.

“Great flight,” Newell said.

Before he could say another word, his eyes filled with tears. He looked up at the wing tip of the 73-year-old bomber and clenched his fist together, pumping them slowly while his crewmates gathered around him.

“We made it,” they said one after another.

“Doc” had arrived, indeed.

This story was originally published July 24, 2017 at 7:23 AM with the headline "B-29 bomber ‘Doc’ arrives at world’s biggest air show."