Warpaint Series No. 143, "Boeing B-29 and B-50 Superfortress"
A big “thanks” to the distributors at Guideline Publications for providing IPMS USA with this excellent book on the B-29/B-50 series aircraft. We fully appreciate your support!
Written in the now-familiar Warpaint series format, this 115-page book contains a wealth of information. Comprised of 13 chapters with 12 tables of data and myriad photos, this is a considerable effort with much reading in store. That’s a personal affection of mine, where the written word adds much to the copious colour and black and white images contained therein. Using words enforces and supports the images, providing history and education for someone who may not be familiar with Boeing’s Superfortress family. I am not a fan of two-page pictures and lots of white space with few type space descriptions, a trend seen frequently among magazines these days. A magazine is an information medium, not a 14 x 24 “Coffee-table” format (although many readers may well use it as such). I recommend we support literacy by providing opportunities to read something!
Background on the pedigree of the B-29 is copious, (and as I was leading the effort to re-assemble the B-29 at Barksdale AFB back in 1992, I had personal access to the dash-1 pilot notes and maintenance manuals)… I recognized much of the text in this book as having been borrowed directly from such sources. What matters is the text supports the aircraft description and operation.
The development of heavy bombers in early World War II is discussed at length, which is essential to ensure the reader learns the B-29 had a long pedigree before operational use. In particular, the B-15 and B-19 provided the background for the operational shortcomings inherent in early bomber development, particularly about engine power output. Such issues were commonplace in the rapid growth of air power at the time, and plagued even the B-29/B-50 during their fielding.
This book is full of detailed pictures and descriptions; interior pictures are period black and white, and show the aircraft as they were during operational service. Color images are interspersed with black and white photos, and add much to the final product.
Full-color profile art is provided on the interior pages of various aircraft; The B-29 has been extremely well represented by other authors, but this book contains fresh material, many of which I had not seen previously.
The section on atomic operations is extremely well-detailed, and uses images recently declassified from official US sources. Another interesting section deals with the development and deployment of the British-manufactured unguided “Tallboy” bomb. I had previously been aware only that they were carried by Lancaster bombers… The B-29 was well documented as having carried “Tarzon” (early “Tallboy” radio-guided bombs), which was well addressed… I was unaware of the scope of these modifications, and was interested to learn how they were employed against high-value targets in North Korea.
Rescue aircraft operations is extremely detailed, including images of the airborne parachute-dropped survival boats. As this was before the use of helicopter assets became commonplace, the colorful yellow-striped aircraft served well in the Korean conflict in particular… if not utilized outright, they provided a level of mental security for operations personnel who may have been forced to ditch in hostile, frigid waters.
Development of the B-50 with its massive 28-cylinder Pratt and Whitney R-4360 engines is discussed at length; with the last of these being flown as a KB-50 with J-57 Jet engines to increase the top speed of the aircraft, the amazing part is some were used in the Pacific region until 1963 as much-needed tanker assets.
The use of the B-50 airframe as a carrier and launch aircraft for several of the early “X”-series aircraft also serves the modeler well, with many views and details not seen elsewhere.
The section on the “foreign operator” of B-29 use by the British shortly after WWII is particularly interesting, in that the UK at the time was still developing their “V”-force jet bombers, and needed the ability to stand with the United States against the Soviet Union’s similar developments.
I was interested from an artist’s perspective to note that on page 38 a familiar image jumped out at me. The B-29s were unloading their bombs on a target, and the angles and details matched a certain large-scale model box art. A reminder of a lesson learned from some of the masters of aviation Art, who advise us to avoid directly copying and using photography to generate artwork…. Someone will notice it someday!
The last section of the book contains aircraft hull and tail number production information, and several more pages of color profile art; a very clean multi-view 1/200 scale 3-view and profile drawing series on the B-29 is also rendered by Mr. Sam Pearson.
All in all a worthwhile addition to anyone interested in the B-29 and B-50 series aircraft. Thanks again to Guideline for supplying us with this book; IPMS USA appreciates your support, and I was fortunate to have received this copy!
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