B-29 Flight Procedure And Combat Crew Functioning (1944)
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Improved print. Military training film detailing flight procedure, crew assignments, and armament of the B-29 bomber aircraft.
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My dad was a pilot in WWII on a B-29 in Guam, all of 22 years old. I always wondered why the training time for this bird was so long, and now I know. So complicated!
Greetings from Guam
That's really cool. I found out when I think I was like 15, that my great grandfather captained one of these. I never met him because he died when I was three in 2007. But he captained "The Big Stink." His name was Hermann Stanley Zahn and he died a retired Colonel. I wish I could've met him.
My dad was a metal worker on these during the war, I really miss him
I'm sorry for your loss :(
Sorry for your loss.
Your dad was part of a great effort to win the war. We still enjoy today some of the fruits of his effort. You should be proud of him and it sir.
Ĺ
Then he was a master metal worker!
My father was a B-29 Commander at the end of WWIi. Oldest guy there....21 years old with a total of 250 hours total flight time! Sent out to find Guam....navigator was 17 years old and this was his first mission. Wow....
They were fearless people who didn't regard their own survival above that of their countrymen. Incredible bravery.
Greatest generation.
And the engineer was 19?? Sorry but its not creidible, the age of the crew sounds imposibble.
I got 3 boys and not a SnowFlake in the bunch. I'd trust my life to the animals I Raised. They would be MORE than up for this. God Love Every One Of them ! ! Bradley, Bryce, and Andrew ! EXCEPTIONAL MEN ! ! ! ! ! !
@@edmondmcdowell9690 horse shit.
I like the tone the narrator takes; he sounds like you're borrowing his airplane and he's not entirely happy about it.
The Gas tank is full and I expect it to be that way when you return it!
Great God 🙏 bless the boys 💕💕💕💕💕💕 amen for ever
Lol
@@garyrunnalls7714 ö ok koop
@@mikewhipkey6863 there better not be a single scratch on it neither !
The apex of early '40's technology...and the flight engineer was a busy man!. I saw Fifi back in early 90's, of course getting a cylinder changed! Thanks. PS...those R-3350's killed more servicemen than the Japanese, as i recollect. After the war, they were reworked...#17 cylinder was a real culprit, the exhaust valve stem would break, and raw gas blew into the cylinder...with fire as a result. Those men were real hero's. Thanks again for the reminders of what they did on our behalf.
The R 3350 were rushed into production , without working out all the bugs . As the Air Force would say , we will just fix it in the field.
My dad would have loved this. He was a mechanic on these during the war.
“We finished the preflight inspection.”
“The war’s over”
You mean your war.Not theirs.
I got to tour the inside of a B-29 thanks to an unlikely set of circumstances. I even got to crawl through the tunnel. I was stationed at Loring AFB in northern Maine from 1976 through 1980. As a Staff Sergeant, I was assigned to a KC-135 flight simulator as a maintenance tech. Around 1979 a gentleman walked into the office and introduced himself. He said he was flying a B-29 to England to be restored and put in a museum.
Departing from Arizona, he landed at Loring to refuel and get more oil for the leaky engines. He was forced to stay longer than he planned due to a hydraulic leak in the landing gear. He was stuck waiting for parts. As a pilot, he was itching to get some flying time in even if it was a simulator. His B-29 was parked inside a secure hanger. He made me an offer I couldn't refuse. He said if I let him fly the simulator, he would get me past security and let me crawl around inside the B-29. That offer was a no-brainer. What a thrill. Although it was not the Enola Gay B-29, it was an amazing piece of American history nonetheless.
The story on that B29 going to England is on the net somewhere. Martin Caidin wrote about it.
I find it hard to imagine how effective the remote turrets would be on this plane?
The highest respect goes to the guy's that flew and fought on these, blows my mind how much it takes a crew to fly it.
My dad was a command gunner on B-29s, and explained how the gunners' firing controls automatically calculated range, deflection, etc., which allowed for greater accuracy. The command gunner also had the ability to take control of all or some of the turrets to meet a greater threat coming from one direction. Very high-tech, but required substantially more training than the older systems on B-17s/B-24s.
@@dhall058 Good info, must of been a much smaller crew on a b29 with automatic defensive system?
@@russellherbert9670 Still a crew of 10+. The guns still needed gunners but the remote computer aiming system was an incredible leap in gunnery.
I had a copy of this on VHS, back in the late 80's. Cool to see it again.
It's a re-upload for me, I had a VHS looking copy. This one is miles better.
I did a tour of the P2B-1S BuNo 84029 Superfortress that is now owned by Kermit Weeks back in 1978. It was sitting at North Field on Oakland Airport and had recently been used for some movie work. This was the airplane that was used as the mother ship for the Douglas D-558 II Skyrocket mach 2 tests during the 1950s. By 1978 it had been converted pretty much to a full military configuration, with turrets, gunsights and a Norden bombsite. Hank Spini, a retired USAF master sergeant and and ground crew chief had been hired by the owner to maintain the R-3350 engines took my girlfriend and I over there to crawl around inside while he did a walk around of the airplane. Hank was a neighbor in the apartment building in San Rafael, CA where I lived at the time. It was a real treat to have the run of the aircraft, from nose to tail. Hank passed away in the early 1980s, but it was an honor to have known him. Rest in Peace.
Even though it was rushed into production, an iconic design and really a hemispheric warfare game changer. In the great cyclone "Black Friday" June 1st 1945, the B-29's turned into guardians that helped guide the fighters lost in the massive storm back to base in small bands trying not to run out of gas and crash into the ocean. About 25 P-51s were lost but it could have been more had it not been for the crews of the B-29's to guide their little friends home.
My dad flew the KB-29 and the KB-50 for the Tactical Air Command out of Langley AFB, VA.
It cost more to develop the B-29 than the Manhattan Project.
What an aircraft I saw the Iwm Duxford B29 land as a DAS member. For her final flight. What a moment.i won't forget it.
After the show’s end,there will be a show on my checklist for each day.😄
I will wonder as I watch this film; did my father see this? He was the pilot of the B29 named the Starduster. He was stationed in Saipan; and he is shone a few times in the film narrated by Ronald Reagan, Target Tokyo.
They had electrically controlled paired 50's mounted on these airframes. Which is terrific! Yet, when the M1 tank was released, the bean counters or "nancy's" in ordinance procurement poo-poo'd the idea of running electric single-50's on the premier MBT, main battle tank, deployed some 40 years later. I believe that's changed and recent upgrades to the M1A2+ are switching to remote control 50's. If so, it took 40 years to "fix" something that should have been deployed properly from the get-go.
The Germans mounted robot guns on their Hetzer tank destroyer during WW2.
Joy to watch, simply incredible.
After seeing this video, I guess I will never be able to become a B29 pilot.
What a magnificent aircraft the technology is amazing for the 1940s if I was a Japanese fighter pilot I would be very wary of approaching a 29 with all those browning 50calibers.... The Japanese must have realised the game was up when they observed these beautiful aircraft over the home islands.... Absolutely stunning aircraft 👍
My Uncle Joe Dunne, flew bomber missions over Tokyo off of Guam, north field, spot K. He was right gunner on the "City Of Spokane "
My grandfather was a master gunner on b29 in Guam. He never spoke of his experiences but always mentioned how he had to fix damage in flight by nearly exiting the plane
Military people seem smart back then and this seems so complex.
This was early on in the war. The B-29 first had the canon in the tail but later was replaced with twin 50's. plus it is painted in Olive Drab configuration.
@@_smallmac_ B29 wasn't used in Europe during WW2.
The aircraft was an early B-29 probably built in late 1943. The film has a 1944 date but was probably shot in 1943.
@@TheBalls55 No. May be a couple flights but that was it.
9:15 I love the putt-putt....
It just putts along happily
there she is.....the Putt Putt: czcams.com/video/q7aSEErZUag/video.html
That is what caugt fire on the KEE BIRD.
Great plane also makes a great choice if you building a plastic model.
Good gravy, the flight control software is a bunch of guys named Joe. Proof that you can eventually train anyone to do anything.
My dad flew this after the b17.
Must’ve been a nice improvement. He was the commander?
@@joaopedrotavaresdafonsecal1529 The b29 was a big improvement. It could fly faster, higher, carry more bombs, remote controlled machine guns, pressurized cabin, and yes, he was the captain. He even flew a secret mission at night carrying two atom bombs from somewhere in the Dakotas to a southern state somewhere.
You must be old as Methuselah. I just turned 74.
Folks, don't forget the crucial role the Superfortresses also had in the Korean War along with their crews. They braved NK MiGs to destroy the Commie supply lines.
0111
Eisenhower is no longer President. It's been a long time since I heard "Commie Menace" scare rhetoric! Several B-29's were downed by North Korean Mig 15's. Take Care.
@@unclebob6728 good ole' Uncle Bob sounds a little red
Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pilots, copilots hopped off a farm, or adobe Hogan etc etc say good bye to their high school sweetheart, some never even been with another...
They had to man up, and act/become what each of the wiley crew if strangers could put their lives in the hands of...
Really believe and have confidence you'll know what to do and experienced enough to handle crazy deadly scenarios..
Hell.. Many never even seen a plane ✈
What a great aircraft.
Such a great video! its like the 40´s Just planes LOL.
It's 1944 and there is an emergency command to takeoff and deliver 20,000 lbs of ordinance on a target that must be downloaded "on the spot". The order is given. Take off and deliver all your bombs immediately otherwise the mission will fail. Do you honestly believe the Skipper will care about checking to see if the clearance on the landing gear is 11.5 inches when the entire war depends on whether his bomb load is delivered on target?
That was probably a ten to twelve hour round trip. Ultimately the pilot is responsible for the plane and the souls on board. If anything went wrong it was his head on the block. I'm sure the experienced pilots could look at the gear and appraise their condition by look and trust the crew to check other items. This wasn't like it is today where the plane is kept in constant rediness and the crew just rushes out and boards and flys away. There were scheduled launch times so they could drop bombs at a specific time and maybe return in the daylight so, there was plenty time to do the rediness checks.
@@darylullman7083 ty for the info.
The Twentieth Air Force of the U.S. Army Air Force was adamant about the role of the B-29 in the Pacific. They wanted the aircraft used for the massive strategic attacks on Japan, operations subject to planning as @Daryl Ullman noted, rather than the short-notice support of in-theater objectives for which MacArthur wanted them.
As a 24 year veteran of the RAF I can tell you with absolute confidence that this is not what happens today, and I am pretty sure that back in WWII the aircrew didn’t do all of the things that they show here, that is what the groundcrew are/were for, they would do a Before flight inspection, checking everything including everything seen here and a lot more besides, after each flight they would do a complete After Flight inspection covering a huge amount of of things, oil levels, refuelling, replenishing anything used during flight as required and so many individual items that on an aircraft the size of a B-29 a team of probably six would be needed with each person responsible for a specific area of the aircraft, there was/is what is called a turnaround servicing, basically a refuel, re-arm all around visual inspection for any damage from the previous flight, and That IS what groundcrew did and still do, maybe not in the USAAF or USAF but in the RAF that is exactly what we did, and every time a flight servicing was done the people who did it had to annotate on a form things like the fuel content, how much fuel was loaded and when necessary what tanks was it in, oil levels, weapons load, etc etc and then sign to say that everything was done correctly in accordance with procedures and any special instructions, and when a pilot came to get his aircraft he would sign to say he accepted the aircraft and that he was happy (aircrew are never happy) that the aircraft was ready, they did/do carry out a walk round inspection but nothing like what is depicted here, it just wouldn’t be practical or necessary.
@@allandavis8201 Thank you very much DJ Phantom for the detailed information. But I must say, I was out of breath reading your comment because there were no periods where there should have been sentences. I actually held my breath for about 30 seconds reading your comment and then wondered to myself why I was out of breath. LOL, but it was a great informative comment never-the-less. Thank you.
By the time they go through all that, the war is over.
Shit the planes would leave me in the dust I'd still be checking my tires psi 😂😂😂☠😵
Like this back tire is 74 can we get a air pump back out here...☠😂
I have a question, i always wondered about. If the b-29 is presssurized, if it gets hit with bigger bullets, or flak explosion, doesn't it suck out the air from the inside, damaging the plane much more and propably killing some of the crewmen?
Not exactly. The pressure is tapped directly from the engines (likely the superchargers). If the pressure vessel sustains damage the system will try to compensate, but if there is too much damage the crew will have to revert to oxygen masks.
Really I like it very hight technology that's times I wish my country make madin like this army plan really powerfull
An irresistible instrument of destruction!!
Yummy!!
Une sacré usine à gaz pour la mise en oeuvre!
J'ai cru comprendre que sous les tropique il ne fallait pas attendre trop longtemps avant de décoller à cause du risque de surchauffe et d'incendie des moteur.
Personally I think that the B-29 was a miraculous aircraft, well advanced for the era, but I do think it was overly technical, primarily for the gunners, but also for the pilot and co-pilot, but I suppose during war the devil drives invention.
Might be interesting to note that Germany, alone in the War, did not have a long range bomber. What i saw was that the German officer who was promoting it, got killed in a plane crash. It's a wonder how Germany did so well with their hierarchal system they had. Albert Speer said he was constantly jockeying for favor with Adolph.
The Nazis seemed to deliberately have a confused system of leadership, by dividing it they made sure no one person could challenge the fuhrer. For one example, the boundaries of party regions (gau) didn't necessarily match those of German states. Though those became pretty unimportant it did create parallel administrative systems.
@@richardweil8813 Sort of odd for Germans who are noted for organizational skills. I guess you can over organize just like you can over engineer things.
Until Hitler sealed Germany's fate by declaring war on the U.S., neither German war doctrine nor its geographic situation required a strategic bombing capability.
The Putt-Putt and Magnetos are in central position in the whole B-29.
Here is something I don't understand... How did japanese get up to 30,000 to intercept? I don't think they could. I dont think their fighters had high octane fuel needed to get up to those altitudes. Id also wonder how anti aircraft gunnery made it up that high too.
They didn't make it up that high. 20,000 feet was about maximum a fighter could reach (a few). The problem was that the jet stream was so fast above that, that the B-29's couldn't hit their targets so they began lower altitude drops, which put them within reach of fighter attack and artillery bursts
I appreciate the Japanese for making this aircraft a reality 🥳
My dad was a bomeadier served in kutahmundi India flew over the hump / the Himalayas with the 444 th expeditionary force deacons deciples and then guam
Are procedures so involved and complicated in modern fighters and bombers today too? This is way too complex.
My brain hurts!
WTF... who could possibly keep all those instructions straight
@Ken D....that is my question, too. LOL. thanks. Everybody had their assigned tasks...no modern electronics to rely upon.
@@darrellborland119 That's why you have various checklists (start, taxi, takeoff, etc.,) to insure you don't overlook anything.
@@WAL_DC-6B fun fact, the reason they introduced checklists on these kind of birds was because of a mistake made by a B-17 crew. They forgot to unlock the wheal at the tail and couldn't steer on the runway, resulting in them steering off the runway. I don't know of there were any casualties, I hope there weren't. I also don't know the date when this happend because I heard it from a classmate in aircraft maintenance school
@@scjvz04d5 That was the crash of the Boeing 299, the four engine aircraft Boeing build to compete for the Army Air Force's next bomber contract. This aircraft is the direct ancestor of the Boeing B-17. The pilots of the bomber on a test flight at Wright Field in Ohio on October 30, 1935 overlooked disengaging the "gust locks" which locked the control surfaces in place while the aircraft was on the ground. When the experimental aircraft took off, it stalled shortly after leaving the ground and crashed killing the pilot and co-pilot. I've read somewhere in the past that it was indeed this crash that led to the use of check lists for aircraft.
@@WAL_DC-6B nice to hear mote information about this, thank you. As you can clearly tell I didn't know the entire story, but I got at least 4% right :). Thank you for the info again
Hard to believe. But I heard someone in the military say more effort went into developing the B-29 than went into the Manhattan Project. Or more effort into taking the bomb than developing it.
The WW2 B29 Program was 3 billion .
@@lindycorgey2743 How much did the Manhattan Project cost?
The U.S. Govt spent 2 billion on the A Bomb project. Hard to believe the B29 cost more then the bomb it dropped.
@@lindycorgey2743 Yeah, and with all the security measures we took, the Soviets ended up stealing copies of both. The B29 was an amazing piece of work, but nearly obsolete by the time it was built. In the end, they both did their job well and ended the War sooner than without them.
A lot of information went out in the lend-lease aircraft that flew to Russia. But I seriously doubt that even if the program was drum tight. Once the bomb was used. The Genie would be out of the lamp. It may have taken longer. But the Russians would have worked out the technology. The same as for the B29. The U.S. had licensed the Curtiss Wright R1520 to the Russians in the 1930s. They used it to eventually develop the engine used in the TU-4.
By the end of this video you just decide.............screw this!! I'll be a fighter pilot. ;-)
I am a pilot and I have never ever seen anything so complicated to fly.
What do you fly?
No computers then.
Agree, but then Cessna, Piper and glider aircraft (trained in all) are not even close in scale or power. What gets me is the narrow window between landing and stall speed, though I understand airliners have not that much room either. Still, from what little I know about them jets are simpler engines than these monsters. I suspect a lot of the bomber pilots of the era had experience tinkering with cars and farm machinery, and that may have helped them.
Close to four thousand made. Sixteen thousand engines just to equip on manufacturing line.
Two remaining in flyable condition.
What are the ultraviolet lights at 10:07 for?
Great question. I'd like to know too.
@@RickSaffery The controls and anything the pilot might need to read. These are red lights like in a submarine to prevent blinding yourself in the dark.
You can't see much of the 'glow' from UV light, it won't light up a surface unless it's painted in a colour that reflects it. The needles and instrument writing is painted as such, but the rest of the panel etc isn't, so using a UV light prevents any glow from the cockpit that could be seen by enemy forces/aircraft, but illuminates the needles etc perfectly.
The same technique is used in modern endurance racing cars to make all the buttons in the cockpit flouresce at night but without a glow that would distract the driver.
@@MA-iv7ol I don't think they are red lights (UV is invisible). Could they be used to make the control markings glow in a controllable manner? Radium could do the same thing, but would not be controllable?
Such a shame , the B29 was a state of the art Bomber in 1944 and by 1951 in Korea it was obsolete thanks to the Mig 15.
I wonder if this was filmed in Ft. Worth. Doesn't look like Washington state or Kansas. Carswell AFB?
Carswell doesn't have a runway 10. MacDill maybe?
Surely you jest that the pilot and co-pilot would check the air pressure in the tires before takeoff. What was the purpose of having a crew chief and ground crew for each plane. Next you’ll will be wanting the pilot to check the oil dipstick on each engine and make sure the windshield wiper fluid was filled.
My thoughts exactly. It indicates to me that there must have been an issue with tires on the early B-29.
Redundancy. Checking the work of other members of the crew. That's what a commander does.
It's just a training film. Made before they had much real world experience with the aircraft. At that time the B-29 had major "teething" issues. The film was made by the USAAF FPMU in Culver City CA. It let Hollywood people "contribute to the war effort" with little risk for the risk averse. It was led for most of the war by Paul Mantz who spent so much time flying around in his personal B-17 and not minding the store he lost the job.
@32:15 "... and don't forget to turn off the Detonator Power Switch."
MARVELLOUS
Could the gunner shoot the engine, propeller or tail rudder by mistake?
Great question. They could have some mechanism in place to prevent firing at specific azimuths to avoid striking the aircraft. Given that guns have computer control this is likely so. That said, manual override would not have this feature. Anyone familiar with government contracts may be jaded. What you ask could have been a requirement or it may be missed or omitted for all manner of reasons or excuses. I look forward to someone with experience with the guns sharing their knowledge.
@@RickSaffery Yes, they had interrupters that prevented firing at specific locations. These were invented and used in WW1.
@@R.U.1.2. They stopped you shooting your propeller off with the forward firing mg. They literally interrupted the firing just before the blade reached the muzzles position.
Just like what would have happened to me70 years ago, if I had this training….I fell asleep
Good to know training films even back in the day got stuff wrong. The turrets were quad 50s if I remember correctly.
The quads were added later in the war, after this flick was made.
I believe only the front top turret was upgunned to deter frontal attacks
Expecting the pilot to check all those things. Didn't they already have enough on their plates flying missions?
Couldn't the technicians engineered be trusted to do their jobs?
This. This is why my sir that the United States of America is the strongest military in the world...
How are the propeller speeds separate from the throttle position? Doesn't the throttle directly increase/decrease them?
Varying the pitch of the propeller blades varies propeller speed at a given throttle position.
@@davidfifer4729 Ah, thanks.
Anyone notice that the pilot looks like Bruce Boxleitner from Babylon 5?
Does it take this long ? 40's I guess.
If you don't know where the bombadier sits, perhaps you're not ready to captain a B29
gun cameras set to sixteen frames per second. why?
Possibly they knew how much ammo they had and how much film and to make sure the film lasted until the ammo ran out (and vice versa) 16 fps was the correct film speed.
Exactly how could the gunners remotely watch and aim at the targets on these?
I guess the answer is: They couldn't.
Does anyone know?
Each of the five gunners had a computing gunsight which they aimed at a target. The guns where slaved to the gunsights. Selecting which guns were slaved to which gunsight was the job of the crew member called the "Gun Commander" in this film.
They got a video on it too...the gunners would look into a reticle and aim it at a target and the computer would take in lead angle speed and flight direction and aim the guns at it at the correct angle n everything! It was literally like a video game he had a little box as a reticle and he had to put the silhouette of the aircraft in this box and the computer would do the rest pretty much
These same type of gun computers were later put onto anti aircraft guns on big ships like aircraft carriers. When they would work it worked good. When they didn't everything missed big.
My neighbor flew out of Travis AFB in the Reserves and for American. He said he felt like a glorified truck driver. 1990’s.
Looks to be a major pain in the ass.
19:02 ship?
common to call airplanes ships. We called helicopters ships.
@@tracywilkinson1820 Remember the good ol' days when we traveled on airliners?
@@JazzWithJakeInSF I'm old enough to remember wearing nice clothes to fly on Braniff Airlines.
5
Got damn! Took 30 minutes to explain a preparation to fly. With all that, by the time they are in the air the war is over. The stupid video starts at 35:00. LOL
LOL!!!
日本人として、B-29には『怒り』しか感じない。
if KIDS today knew what KIDS in persay 1940 whendrafted knew what life was about instread of whining, playing video games, acting like America OWES them something (in a sick lazy way) was about.....God bless ALL who died going down in a super fortress.....R.I.P. boys I am gratefull for my freedom!!!!!!!!!!
hweel
MEN were MEN in them days, they are gone forever
Can someone explain me why CZcams deactivated the comments in the "AAF B-29 flight engineer" video??? What nonsense is this?! Do they think it's porn?!
Ch
奨学金制度を 財団がやればいいんだよ おい おい おい くだらん財団ばっかりあるくせに 勉強したら負けるからやらせないんだよ
"Biggest, fastest, mightiest bomber"
*Engines overheat
*Open cowl flaps
* *LITERALLY FALLS OUT OF THE SKY*
日本もよくこんな国と戦争したなぁ。日本の4発機は連山4機、深山6機だけ。深山は輸送機としてフィリッピン方面を往復しただけ。アメリカはB29だけで4000機だからな。
Compare the men back then, to the "men" nowadays. Isn't that just sad.
@Tommy Voctor Buch...no s.oy in their diet!. thanks.
Yeah, but I don't see any minorities in the mix.
Luckily for them, you werent around
That's right, mate!
ok the b29 has a pressurized cabin
how did it hold pressure with that little door looking at the front strut?
The gamy anime generically doubt because brandy prominently provide to a bouncy ellipse. animated, massive thunder
Good thing that the war doesn't start until 9 am. This takes ages. And then there's wardrobe too.
I do despise the therm May West, since today, this is sexist and bigot. It's a life vest, not the tits of a movie star.
murders!
I believe you meant murderERS? That makes your comment doubly wrong. Last time I looked at the history of WWII, it seemed that we stayed out of that war until we were attacked. Yes?
@@billmcgill3739 Yes.
"OK boys, shut her down, the war is over!" What a lot of BS!
glamouros task? Killing innocent people???????
Glamorous task. Rape of Nanking and attack on Pearl Harbour? Must be nice to live in a world where your country has never been attacked by another country.