The Mighty B-29 Superfortress

The B-29 Super Fortress is a four-engine, propeller driven bomber, made by Boeing, who also makes normal aircraft. This mighty bomber could hold up to 20,000 pounds of bombs and had 8 .50 caliber machine guns and 4 .30 caliber -- living up to its name very well. This was also the famous plane that dropped the atomic bombs over first Hiroshima and then Nagasaki. B-29 Super Fortress was mainly used in World War II and later on in the Korean war. Heritage wise, it was known as the "big brother" of the B-17 and the "little brother" of the B-32, its predecessor and successor, respectively. It has been one of the greatest planes ever made.

This potent beast required eleven people to command it-- a lot for it's time. There were four gunners for each turret, and a bombardier who looked over and dropped the bombs. There were also the airplane commander, the pilot, the flight engineer ( a rated pilot), a navigator that was basically a human GPS and told the pilot where to fly, and then radar and radio operators. Almost 4,000 of these planes were built, until they were rendered obsolete by better designed, jet-engined bombers.

Powering the Superfortress were four turbosupercharged R-3350 engines, each pounding out 2200 horsepower each. Imagine that! Almost 9000 horses pulling this epic maker of destruction! If all of those 9000 horses stood side by side, the area they would cover would almost be four miles wide. The B-29 had a max speed of 357 mph and could fly up to 3,250 miles on a combat mission. Its service ceiling, how high it could go, was over 30,000 feet, making it next to impossible to hit with AA guns, and almost no fighter could go that far up. Protecting it were ten .50 caliber machine guns in remote-controlled turrets, and in earlier B-29s, a 20mm M2 cannon in the B-29's tail position.

This war machine was exceedingly the famous for mostly one mostly. This was the plane that dropped the atomic bombs-- called Fat Man and Little Boy, aptly named. The planes were modified to better fit their mission, with more powerful engines, and a stiffer structure for better flying. The machines were also used before the attack on the two cities, bombing Japan from other bases in southern China, though only one came back. After its major role in bombing the two cities, it, unlike many other bombers was in service for about 15 years after production stopped, and was used in the Korean war as well.

As you can see, this was one of the most advanced planes for its time, with the first pressurized cabin in a bomber ever, lots of guns, and a huge bomb capacity. Even though it has passed on, its name will live forever in books and minds.