Running Time 00:08:33
Army Air Force explicates bombing raids by B-29's equipped with RADAR over Japan.
The B-29 bomber, produced by the Boeing Aircraft Company during the war, was the first long-range heavy bomber employed by the United States. It was primarily used in the war's Pacific Theater, and became notorious as the plane used to drop the world's first atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, Aug. 6 and 9, 1945.
The Boeing B-29 was designed in 1940 as an eventual replacement for the B-17 and B-24. The first one built made its maiden flight on Sept. 21, 1942. Developing the Boeing B-29 was a program which rivaled the Manhattan Project in size and expense. Technically a generation ahead of all other heavy bomber types in World War II, the Superfortress was pressurized for high altitudes and featured remotely-controlled gun turrets. Most important, its four supercharged Wright R-3350-23 engines gave it the range to carry large bomb loads across the vast reaches of the Pacific Ocean.
As it came into the AAF inventory in mid-1944, the B-29 weighed 140,000 pounds loaded, with an effective range of 3,250 miles. Pavements failed, and at their best, behaved erratically. No airfield pavement had been designed for more than 120,000 pounds gross weight. The Corps of Engineers began experiments anew with pavement overlays at Hamilton Field north of San Francisco.
For defensive armament, the B-29 was equipped with non retractable turrets mounting ten .50 caliber machine guns and one 20 millimeter cannon (which was dropped from later models). All turrets were remotely operated by a General Electric central fire control system. The B-29 also had an extensive radio and radar equipment that included a liaison set, radio compass, marker beacon, glide path receiver, localizer receiver, IFF (identification friend or foe) transformer, emergency rescue transmitter, blind bombing radar (on many aircraft), radio countermeasures, and static dischargers.
Another special and for a while greatly troublesome feature of the B-29 was the brand new, but fire prone, 18 cylinder Wright R-3350-23 engine. The 4 engines were mounted by 4 bladed Hamilton constant speed, full feathering propellers, 16 feet, 7 inches in diameter. In addition, instead of the traditional single unit, each engine made use of 2 turbo superchargers.
As the powerful B-29 "Superfortress" rolled off America's production lines in the midst of World War II, General "Hap" Arnold, then Commanding General of the Army Air Forces, understood the need to bring the B-29's unique strategic bombing capabilities to bear against the Japanese homeland. Thus, in April 1944, he created Twentieth Air Force and gave it the daunting mission of conducting one of the largest--and ultimately most successful--air campaigns in history. Arnold's B-29s first flew in Operation MATTERHORN, which called for India-based Superfortresses to bomb Japan from forward bases in China. However, as allied forces advanced in the South Pacific "Island Hopping" campaign, Twentieth Air Force expanded its B-29 operations to bases in the Marianas Islands. During the last two months of 1944, B-29s began operating against Japan from the islands of Saipan, Guam and Tinian. Flying more than 1,500 miles one way, more than 1,000 bombers and 250 fighters conducted 28,000 combat sorties against Japan in the brief span of 16 months.
On 6 August 1945 the crew of the "Enola Gay" dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. The thirteen-hour mission to Hiroshima began at 0245 Tinian time. By the time they rendezvoused with their accompanying B-29s at 0607 over Iwo Jima, the group was three hours from the target area. The "Enola Gay" flew toward Hiroshima at a speed of 285 mph. After six-and-a-half hours of tough over-water navigation, the B-29 was over target within seventeen seconds of the scheduled drop time of 0915. When the 9,000-pound bomb "Little Boy" fell from the "Enola Gay," pilot Paul Tibbets put the aircraft into a 60-degree diving right turn and headed home. Seconds later, Hiroshima lie in ruins.
The end of World War II prompted the cancellation of over 5,000 B-29s, still on order in September 1945. However, several B 29s well along in production were completed. For all practical purposes, production did not end before June 1946, the last B-29 being delivered on the 10th.
The AAF accepted a grand total of 3,960 B-29s: 3,943 B-29s, 3 XB-29s (including the experimental plane which crashed before delivery), and 14 B-29 prototypes. Actually, B-29s, B-29As, and B-29Bs made up the production total.

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