Two B-29s airborn at Oshkosh

In either 1956 or 57 I saw 2 RAF B29 Washingtons parked outside the Hangars at RAF Oakington which was a Varsity base at the time.

 

Impressive sight - thanks for that!

If Wikipedia is to be believed, the USAF were flying B29s into June 1960. The KB50 tankers (essentially an upgraded B29) were flying operationally until 1965.

Supposedly the Russians were still flying Tupolev Tu4s (their reverse-engineered B29) up to the mid 1960s.

Tom

 

Mention of the Russian "pirate" copies is interesting. As until July '45 they were Neutral out East and at peace with the Japanese. So any U.S. [or allied] airmen [or other military personnel] that landed/arrived there in damaged aircraft or whatever should have been interned under international law. As it was they were returned after a short time of internment, though any equipment was kept. So as the Russians "back" engineered such things as the B29, if it had a [bullet] hole through say a wing or tail plane. They'd add a hole to the appropriate part on their copy!

 

Ive heard that story before, but given the quality of Soviet engineers, it hardly seems plausible that they couldn't tell the difference between a deliberate hole and battle damage. (They were hardly some backward country at that period, given that within about 15 years of the end of the war they had developed nuclear and thermonuclear weapons; and managed to launch a satellite and a man into space before the USA did.)

So I wonder what the actual source for the story was? I wonder whether it was a bit of western propaganda, when it might have been useful to portray the Soviets for domestic consumption as less technically sophisticated than they actually were?

Tom

 

Quite agree Tom. Though "Uncle Joe" [Stalin] got the "Bomb" with out having do all the research having had someone on the inside. Equally I've seen a photo of Stalin with Truman, where Truman has quite a smile having informed Uncle Joe of the Bomb. Stalin in turn looks like the cheshire cat as he'd know of the Manhatten project [the project that lead to the Bomb] long before Truman.......

As for wondering about the mental capacities of the Russians. If you read Paul Brickhills' The Dambusters relates a tale. That when 9[?] and 617 Squadrons arrived in Northern Russia for an attack from there on the Turpitz the crews were shocked to see Russian ground crew beating the living daylights out of an aero engine with hammers.....

 

As I expect many will know a Tu-4 is reserved at Monino. Couple of photos here:

https://andrewstransport.smugmug.com/Aviation/Soviet-Cold-War-bombers/i-7grGCGv

Cheers

Andrew N