Boeing B-29 Superfortress
The most expensive weapons programme of WWII — more than the Manhattan Project.
The B-29 was a technological quantum leap: pressurised crew compartments, computer-controlled remote gun turrets, and intercontinental range. Its Wright R-3350 engines were so troublesome they killed test pilots; the aircraft was rushed into combat anyway. It ultimately dropped both atomic bombs and firebombed Japan into surrender.
01Operations began from bases in India and forward fields in China in 1944, striking Japanese targets at extreme range. Results were modest; the bases were logistically untenable.
02Redeployed to the Mariana Islands (Saipan, Tinian, Guam) in late 1944. Under General Curtis LeMay, the B-29 force switched from high-altitude precision bombing to devastating low-altitude night incendiary raids. The 9 March 1945 fire raid on Tokyo killed roughly 100,000 civilians in a single night.
03On 6 and 9 August 1945 the B-29s "Enola Gay" and "Bockscar" dropped atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A single B-29, the "Bockscar" crew, ended the war. The aircraft continued to serve through Korea and into the 1950s.
Theatres of operation
- ·Pacific — strategic bombing of Japan
Principal operators
- ·USAAF
- ·Soviet Air Force (Tu-4 copy)
Others in the same fight.
Avro Lancaster
B.I / B.III / B.X
North American P-51 Mustang
P-51B / C / D / K
Republic P-47 Thunderbolt
P-47C / D / M / N
Lockheed P-38 Lightning
P-38F / G / H / J / L