The B-29 has always had a special place in my memory. Shortly after WWII, I was a kid growing up at the end of the Dobbins AFB runway in Marietta, Georgia. Adjacent to Dobbins was the “Bomber Plant”. Later I discovered that the “Bomber Plant” was really a government aircraft factory run by Bell Aircraft Company and specifically designed to build Boeing’s B-29 Superfortress. I can still see those giant aircraft taking off and landing over our house.
Soon, Bell stopped building the B-29s and the Air Force closed the plant. The only reminder left behind was a B-29 on static display at Larry Bell Park. That aircraft got plenty of use by the kids playing under and around its huge bulk.
Years later I met a gentleman who flew as a navigator on the B-29 and who became my father-in-law. I remember the stories he would tell of how “that thing” would struggle to get airborne as they watched for telltale signs of fire in the engines.