B-29 Cockpit
Bockscar
The Boeing-designed B-29 #44-27297 was built by the Glenn L. Martin Co. at Omaha, Nebraska, at a cost of about $639,000. It was accepted by the USAAF on April 19, 1945 and was delivered to the 393rd Bomb Squadron at Wendover Field in the Utah salt flats. There aircrews of the 509th Composite Group were engaged in intensive training under a cloak of secrecy. In June, aircraft and crew flew to Tinian Island in the Marianas. From there, Bockscar, named for its pilot Frederick C. Bock, flew five bombing missions. On four of these, a 10,000 pound bomb loaded with high explosives was dropped. Nicknamed "pumpkin" bombs because of their shape and orange color, these were the same size and shape as the actual "fat man" atomic bomb dropped at Nagasaki.
After Japan surrendered, Bockscar and the 393rd Bomb Squadron were
reassigned to Roswell Field, New Mexico. In error, The Great Artiste
was named in some official reports as the superfortress that dropped the
atomic bomb at Nagasaki. This mistake was discovered when preparations
were being made to preserve the aircraft for later museum display.
When the discrepancy was found, it was Bockscar that was retired in
September 1946 to the desert storage facility at Davis-Monthan field near
Tucson, Arizona. There it remained until September 1961 when it made
one more flight, to Wright-Patterson AFB to become part of the growing
collection of display aircraft at the U.S. Air Force Museum. Today
about a million visitors each year view Bockscar, the aircraft that ended
the world's most costly war.
The Pictures that follow were taken many years ago, when on certain occasions the museum would allow visitors to view the aircraft interiors. I took these photos on one of those tours. The interior had not been restored and was as it was upon delivery to the museum. It has since been partly restored and interior tours have been discontinued.
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