☕️ Say thanks with a cup of coffee 😁
We visited the Pueblo Weisbrod Air Museum in Colorado and got to go inside a B-29 Superfortress. It was a dream come true for Jenn as she got to sit in the seat of history.
🚕 Google Map to Pueblo Weisborod Aircraft Museum
📝 Plan your visit: pwam.org
🎥 Historian Review Oppenheimer - Fact vs Fiction
-------------------------------------------------------
⬇️ Help us keep the show going and explore history with us! ⬇️
🧳 Get free travel resources in your inbox.
-------------------------------------------------------
📧 contact: talkwithhistory@gmail.com
Quick thank you to the Pueblo Wise Broad Air Museum, John Hill,
Scott:and everybody who brought us out.
Scott:It really was a blast.
Scott:If you guys are in the greater Colorado area, it's absolutely worth a trip.
Scott:Please.
Scott:You can go check it, check them out.
Scott:Um, I'll put a link to the museum in the show notes.
Scott:If you ever want to visit,
Scott:this is it.
Scott:This is the B29, the plane you've been waiting for.
Scott:And it was worth waiting for.
Scott:It's the biggest, fastest, mightiest heavy bomber in the world.
Scott:It can travel farther and higher than anything else on wings.
Scott:It has a pressurized cabin, permitting high altitude flight without oxygen masks.
Scott:It has five remotely controlled, electrically driven turrets, each
Scott:carrying twin 50s, with a 20mm cannon added to the turret in the tail.
Scott:Yes, the B 29 is everything you've been promised.
Scott:And the pilot who flies one has an enviable job.
Scott:Important, glamorous, and tough.
Scott:Welcome to Talk With History.
Scott:I'm your host, Scott, here with my wife and historian, Jen.
Scott:Hello.
Scott:On this podcast, we give you insights into our history inspired world travels,
Scott:YouTube channel journey, and examine history through deeper conversations
Scott:with the curious, the explorers, and the history lovers out there.
Scott:Now, Jen, last episode, I did not tell a joke.
Scott:Thank God.
Scott:This being our road trip series, I have to, I have to
Scott:keep telling the cheesy jokes.
Scott:The dad jokes.
Scott:Yes.
Scott:Okay.
Scott:So I'm going to ask you one for this particular episode theme.
Scott:What sound does a rubber airplane make?
Jenn:What sound does a rubber airplane make?
Jenn:I
Scott:don't know.
Scott:Boeing.
Scott:That's good.
Scott:So if you are listening and that made you laugh or you made your eyes roll or
Scott:you have a better joke, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and tell that joke.
Scott:And if it makes me laugh, which it probably will because
Scott:I'm easy to entertain, I'll tell that one on the podcast.
Scott:So help us out.
Scott:Leave us a review and let's keep this thing going.
Scott:The B 29 Bomber was a revolutionary long range heavy bomber that played
Scott:a pivotal role in World War II.
Scott:Introduced by the United States Army Air Forces in 1944, the B 29 was a
Scott:technological marvel of its time, boasting advanced features such as pressurized
Scott:cabins, remote controlled gun turrets, and a powerful four engine setup.
Scott:The most notable contributions of this aircraft came through its
Scott:deployment and use in the Pacific theater, eventually culminating in
Scott:the first use of the atomic bomb.
Scott:The legacy of this aircraft endures as a symbol of the United States
Scott:determination and ingenuity during one of the most transformative periods
Scott:in world history, and Jen got the opportunity to get an intimate look
Scott:inside of one of these legendary aircraft.
Scott:So Jen, let's talk about the B 29
Jenn:Superfortress.
Jenn:Yes, what an amazing aircraft.
Jenn:It's just beautiful.
Jenn:When you think about this aircraft, we just did our talk about
Jenn:Oppenheimer and how much they spend on the Manhattan Project.
Jenn:We did
Scott:a live stream on our YouTube channel.
Scott:And remember how
Jenn:much that was.
Scott:Yeah, what, two or three billion?
Jenn:Yeah, it was like two billion.
Jenn:It took three billion dollars to, to design the B 29 bomber.
Jenn:That's crazy.
Jenn:It is the most expensive of the war.
Jenn:Yeah.
Jenn:That they made, anything, even more than the bomb.
Jenn:And the reason why is because they needed an aircraft that
Jenn:could fly the Pacific, right?
Jenn:That's what, because they couldn't carry something so heavy off an
Scott:aircraft carrier.
Scott:Well, and also if I remember right, bombers at the time, they had some,
Scott:but They had to either fly them off an aircraft carrier or it's like
Scott:kind of island hop to get over there.
Scott:And it just wasn't viable for long
Jenn:range.
Jenn:It's not.
Jenn:It wasn't.
Jenn:It wasn't viable for long range.
Jenn:So you couldn't carry something very heavy.
Jenn:Plus, it made you very vulnerable to the attack pilots.
Jenn:And so, um, the fighters.
Jenn:And so what was great about the super forges is it could fly 30, 000 feet.
Jenn:350 miles an hour, which the, the fighters couldn't get up that
Jenn:high and once they got up that high, they couldn't fly that fast.
Jenn:So it was an engineering marvel.
Jenn:And didn't they
Scott:like basically say like, Hey, we need something that can
Scott:fly this far and do these things.
Scott:And they essentially built it in like two years.
Scott:They did.
Scott:So it
Jenn:really was, it was Charles Lindbergh who saw the need for an aircraft that
Jenn:could do this and actually had a good talk with one of our five stars, Arnold.
Jenn:Yeah.
Jenn:And threw a ton of money at it.
Jenn:And that's when, and you know, and they're coinciding the Manhattan Project.
Jenn:Sure.
Jenn:Because
Scott:they don't know if one or the other, they're going down
Jenn:both roads.
Jenn:So you can't like make something.
Jenn:Without a way to deliver something right and you can't make a way to
Jenn:deliver something without having something to deliver right, right?
Jenn:So these are going on kind of simultaneously
Scott:and they had other intent for the b29, right?
Scott:I mean it was it was not just for the atomic bomb But it was
Scott:also for other bombing raids and kind of striking deeper into yeah
Jenn:long range long range Bombing and it really it was really used on the Pacific
Jenn:theater because it really was to fly over that ocean Um because it couldn't
Jenn:get close up to, uh, you know, to Japan.
Jenn:But, uh, yeah, it was Boeing that actually, your joke is so, it's so
Jenn:apropos, uh, cause it was Boeing that designed the B 29 bomber.
Jenn:And of course, like anything else with government contracting, people came
Jenn:with their plans and it was Boeing that had put forth the best design.
Jenn:And so you got this huge aircraft, like you said, with like 140 feet wingspan.
Scott:141 feet longer than the.
Scott:first flight
Jenn:by the Wright brothers.
Jenn:So when we're standing in the hangar there, it at the Pueblo Air Museum,
Jenn:and you see this huge wingspan of this aircraft, it is remarkable how
Jenn:big, and it has the two, two engines on each side, and it's a prop plane.
Jenn:So these are propellers that are spinning.
Jenn:It just really is a marvel, an engineering marvel to look at it.
Jenn:Well,
Scott:and it was neat too.
Scott:And we'll talk a little bit about kind of where we were
Scott:visiting when we were in Pueblo.
Scott:Um, but it was neat too because once you get up close to one of these aircraft,
Scott:and if you ever have the opportunity, Pueblo, Colorado, Fantastic Air Museum,
Scott:we'll talk a little bit more about it, to get up close to one of these
Scott:aircraft to see how big these things are.
Scott:Now, obviously, the insides were pretty crowded.
Scott:They didn't have the small technology that we had today, but then seeing
Scott:footage, and I show some of it in, in our video that I'll link in the
Scott:show notes, seeing footage of dozens, of these aircraft just lining up
Scott:getting ready to go down the runway.
Scott:I mean, and so these maps, I mean, it really kind of helps put more of that
Scott:World War II industrial effort into scale.
Scott:Exactly.
Scott:Seeing
Jenn:that.
Jenn:So from 1944 to 1960, that's the lifetime of the B 29.
Jenn:They basically made a little less than 4, 000 of them.
Jenn:So about 3970 are rolled off the, um, the line.
Jenn:Um, and like you said, pressurized cabin, which was rare.
Jenn:There weren't any aircraft at the time with pressurized cabins,
Jenn:the whole length of the aircraft.
Jenn:So that means everybody, the crew didn't have to wear oxygen masks
Jenn:because above 10, 000 feet, you have to wear supplemental oxygen.
Jenn:So this allowed you to have, you know, frame of mind and keep
Jenn:your wits about you long mission.
Jenn:Right 14 hour flight without a without a mask on and you got one gunner to
Jenn:control the four turrets Which is also rare And so it really was like they were
Jenn:putting these things together that was really going to make this an efficient
Jenn:Aircraft for what they needed it.
Jenn:But like you said There's only two aircraft B 29s that fly today, and
Jenn:you might see pictures of them online.
Jenn:It's the Fifi and the Dock.
Jenn:Yeah, I show footage of the Fifi in our video.
Jenn:And they still fly, but then there's 22 static aircraft.
Jenn:And the two most famous ones, um, and of course we're, we're right in August.
Jenn:So we have Hiroshima, the Enola Gay.
Jenn:We, who dropped the, the bomb, little boy, um, the Enola Gay was
Jenn:named after the pilot's mother.
Jenn:And so Enola Gay is where the name comes from.
Jenn:And then you have Boxcar, who dropped the bomb in, in, in Nakasaki, um,
Jenn:Fat Man was the name of that bomb.
Jenn:And Boxcar is the captain of that plane named, last name
Scott:was Box.
Scott:Yeah.
Scott:And little known.
Scott:Well.
Scott:Maybe that's not so little known, but I didn't know this.
Scott:It's not B O X, it's B O C K S, so box.
Scott:Like that's, that's the last person's last name.
Jenn:Like chicken bock or chicken pock.
Jenn:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jenn:Chicken
Scott:bock.
Scott:Yeah.
Scott:So if you're listening and you didn't know that and you always
Scott:thought it was actually B O X C A R.
Scott:No, that's, that's not actually correct.
Scott:Yeah, it's
Jenn:CK.
Jenn:Um, so those, the Enola Gay Smithsonian, uh, boxcar is at the, uh, Air Force Museum
Jenn:in Dayton, Ohio, birthplace of aviation.
Jenn:And then you have the other 20.
Jenn:spread out across America.
Jenn:And we got to see one and we got a personal tour of one.
Jenn:Yeah.
Scott:And so just to kind of tell how this opportunity for us came about.
Scott:So we actually had someone reach out to us, I believe is one of
Scott:our Arlington videos, right?
Scott:They, they commented and they reached out, they shot us an email.
Scott:And so it was John Hill, um, who kind of did a lot of the coordinating.
Scott:He's a great guy, um, and reached out to us probably six to nine
Scott:months before we ever got.
Scott:To come out.
Scott:Yeah.
Jenn:Cause it's Colorado.
Jenn:It's Pueblo, Colorado.
Jenn:So it's, uh, it's difficult for us in Virginia to make it out to
Jenn:Colorado, but it coincided with
Scott:our road trip.
Scott:Yeah.
Scott:So it ended up working out coinciding with our road trip and we had
Scott:kind of shifted some plans around.
Scott:We were able to make this work.
Scott:It actually lined up really well.
Scott:And so.
Scott:This was exciting for us because it was one of the goals that I've kind of had
Scott:that's on the download I don't talk about too much for the channel is for museums
Scott:like this to reach out to us and say hey We would like you to come and make a
Scott:video at our museum to help promote the museum and eventually for that kind of to
Scott:be one of our Potential kind of business avenues right for us to help promote
Scott:museums and we've just kind of done it for free up to this point And this was kind
Scott:of like the first Sort of sponsorship.
Scott:They didn't really directly pay us money or anything like that
Scott:But they did offer us, you know us you and I the walk with history a
Scott:lifetime membership and that lifetime
Jenn:membership Enabled us to get the hands on tour of the b29, right?
Scott:It allowed us for the hands on tour inside Because there's certain
Scott:criteria for some of the other aircraft and we haven't made those videos
Scott:yet and they'll be coming out soon I mean you got to sit in an f 15 and
Scott:what's the other aircraft you sat in?
Scott:Was it an F 16?
Scott:There was two that you sat in.
Scott:Yeah,
Jenn:I think it was an F 15 and an F 16.
Jenn:Both of them are Air
Scott:Force.
Scott:Right.
Scott:But part of that is that they can't just let the public sit in these things.
Scott:So if you go to Pueblo, the Pueblo Air Museum, right, it's about an hour and
Scott:a half to two hours south of Denver.
Scott:Um, You actually, if you buy a lifetime membership, those people
Scott:there are, are allowed to let these members on occasion sit inside of
Scott:some of these aircraft and do what the public is not authorized to do.
Scott:And so they, they've, they've worked on this and this, it's been
Scott:around for a couple of decades.
Scott:It's a phenomenal museum, very kid friendly.
Scott:Very good.
Scott:If you were out in the Denver area, I highly recommend making a trip out
Scott:there if you're a fan of aviation.
Scott:Or even if you just want to take your kids to something, that whole
Scott:kids area, I didn't get to, I haven't showed it in the video yet.
Scott:That's coming up in future videos.
Scott:But it was, it was just amazing.
Scott:But we'll talk a little bit more about the B29.
Scott:Yes.
Jenn:Yes.
Jenn:A very, a stem for kids.
Jenn:That's what I really appreciated about it.
Jenn:The Pueblo Weisbrod Aircraft Museum and it's a non profit and Fred
Jenn:Weisbrod was the former city manager of Pueblo and it's two hangars.
Jenn:They have 40 military and civilian aircraft.
Jenn:It's all done by volunteers and they're, they do restoration.
Jenn:And one of the planes they're restoring is the B 29, um, Superfortress.
Jenn:It's the Peachy and the captain, Robert.
Jenn:Haver was from Pueblo, Colorado.
Jenn:Mr.
Jenn:Weisbaugh, he's the one who made sure to save that aircraft because it was
Jenn:going to go to be kind of like a static target for target train for, for, for
Jenn:pilots to practice target training.
Jenn:And he saved it because the pilot of that aircraft was from that city
Jenn:and they were able to get it back there and get it in the hangar.
Jenn:And that's so neat.
Jenn:It's connection to the town.
Scott:Yeah, yeah, and it was and I believe there was like, you know,
Scott:if you go back and watch the video I don't remember if everything kind
Scott:of made the my my editor's cut But there was sections of it that he saved
Scott:and then other sections they were able to get from other other places.
Scott:So, um You know, the, this aircraft, you know, as John Hill said,
Scott:it's not a, not a combat veteran.
Scott:It didn't actually fly in combat or anything like that.
Scott:Well,
Jenn:it was shot down over
Scott:Tokyo.
Scott:This, the one sitting in the museum.
Scott:Oh, yeah.
Scott:The original Peachy aircraft was shot down.
Scott:Yes,
Jenn:the original Peachy aircraft was shot down over Tokyo in May of 1945.
Jenn:It's 35th trip over
Scott:Japan.
Scott:Yeah, and, and I encourage you to go watch the video.
Scott:One, it's actually doing quite well for us.
Scott:I think it's going to be a popular video.
Scott:Um, but, but two, it's the nose art is classic world war two nose art.
Scott:So
Jenn:peachy is the younger sister of the pilot.
Jenn:So the pilot from Pueblo.
Jenn:Um, Robert Haver, it's his younger sister, her name, her nickname was
Jenn:Peachy, and she wears this little leather skirt and a little leather vest and a
Jenn:cowboy hat and really not nothing else.
Scott:Yeah.
Scott:It's, it's, it's like think Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, but.
Jenn:Yeah.
Jenn:And they painted her on the side of the aircraft.
Jenn:And they actually have the outfit that she wore for the,
Jenn:for modeling it there as well.
Jenn:Um, but it's really neat, uh, that that's, it's so, I always find it so
Jenn:neat how aircraft are named by the crew.
Jenn:Yeah.
Jenn:And something special to them, something that has meaning to them.
Jenn:You know, when you think of the Memphis Belle, right, that was the
Jenn:girlfriend of the pilot, like it's just something that really ties them
Jenn:to home and something that really makes them smile and, you know, kind
Jenn:of cheers them up and it's for morale.
Jenn:So that's why I really, I love nose art and I really loved this nose art.
Jenn:But, um.
Jenn:Yeah, it has the original serial number, so you can always look it up.
Jenn:It's 44 62022.
Jenn:Yeah, it was recovered in 1972, which is, it's really neat that this uh, aircraft
Jenn:is, is there at the Pueblo Museum.
Jenn:Yeah,
Scott:and just to kind of paint the picture for those listening, if
Scott:you haven't seen the video yet, you know, the, this B 29 is just kind of
Scott:looming inside of their first hangar.
Scott:So there's the first hangar that you can walk all the way through the museum.
Scott:You can actually walk outside.
Scott:They have a bunch of aircraft outside.
Scott:Yes.
Scott:And then they've got a separate hangar with some of the more modern aircraft.
Scott:Now, where the B 29 was, they've got a bunch of World War II kind of memorabilia
Scott:and historical artifacts all the way from, and again, this is in upcoming
Scott:videos, but from flight jackets to, you know, propaganda posters to, you know,
Scott:different kinds of communication areas.
Scott:And so you can go all through and get a feel for what that era was really like.
Scott:Even though the public can't crawl kind of in as, as much as you got to do.
Scott:Yeah.
Scott:Inside of the B
Jenn:29.
Jenn:So I got to see what it's really like to be in the crew of a B
Scott:and you sat in the bombardier seat, like picture.
Scott:Picture the kind of plexiglass front nose that's has clear mm-hmm.
Scott:right?
Scott:If you've watched Star Wars is kind of that kind of hexagonal windows.
Scott:Totally.
Scott:An influence.
Scott:And your city, you got to sit right up front.
Scott:And the nose of that
Jenn:aircraft.
Jenn:Yeah.
Jenn:So, and I got to sit, it's a basically like a, a flip seat where you kind
Jenn:of stand on the seat, then you flip the backup and you sit down and right
Jenn:in front of you is the instrument that the bombardier is using.
Jenn:Uh, it looks like it's calibrated and it has all these different, um, dials
Jenn:on there for different, the compass.
Jenn:settings and for you to make sure you're dialed into where you're, you're bombing.
Jenn:Right.
Jenn:And so, and you can have a little, I look through space, but that little area where
Jenn:the bombardier sitting and then right behind the bombardier, you got the pilot
Jenn:and the co pilot, and then you have a navigator and a radar man who's all kind
Jenn:of sitting in that same general area.
Jenn:But this is, this is where you are for your 14 hour flight.
Jenn:And really when you, when you think about it for like, To get a bomb on target, to
Jenn:get one thing on target, and you really have to, you're the guy, when you think
Jenn:about it, like the pilot flies you there, but you're the guy who has to drop it,
Jenn:and it has to be perfect, and you have to think of everything, you know, you
Jenn:have to think of trajectory, and wind, and doing all the math, all the math,
Jenn:so, it really was a neat experience to sit there, and to be there, and
Jenn:to kind of feel, you know, What that must have felt like for that person.
Jenn:Yeah, now
Scott:it wasn't John who, our initial kind of docent, who was showing us around,
Scott:but he kind of gave us the outside tour and told us about the pilots and the
Scott:crew and Peachy and all that stuff.
Scott:But it was another gentleman named Dick who brought us into, inside the aircraft.
Scott:Um, and you really got, spent more time inside and I was wrangling kids
Scott:and kind of taking shots from outside.
Scott:So
Jenn:Dick was, Dick has been the one who's been restoring the aircraft
Jenn:and I asked him what Brought you to Pueblo, Colorado and he said the B 29.
Jenn:Yeah, and I thought that was amazing that he said he came there To restore that
Jenn:aircraft like that's how much people love these aircraft and there's so few of them.
Jenn:And so he's slowly building this aircraft back To its original original
Jenn:looks and Original parts and he found pieces on eBay and he's been
Scott:fixing them He's found pieces you guys you even spent one point and
Scott:I didn't it didn't really the audio the conversation didn't make The video cut
Scott:but there's one at one point in time.
Scott:I'm showing you all these dials right where I think it's either the navigator
Scott:might have sat or one of the flight engineers sure and There's all these dials
Scott:with all these labels and all the stuff and he's recreated some of the labels.
Scott:Some of the labels are still original, which is really cool.
Scott:But even you, when you were talking to him, you couldn't tell the difference.
Scott:He's doing a phenomenal job.
Scott:And one of the places that he really, he spent a ton of time that we show right
Scott:in the very beginning of the video.
Scott:was the gunner's turret,
Jenn:the turret and kind of its little sight gauge and the way
Jenn:it can move 360 on like a rail.
Jenn:He's he found that original piece and was able to clean it up and recreate it and
Jenn:make sure it fits and is workable in the B
Scott:29.
Scott:Yeah.
Scott:So picture that clear bubble on top of the aircraft, right?
Scott:That's where someone's actually looking through.
Scott:that bubble at the enemy aircrafts around them.
Scott:And there was really, and he was talking about the
Jenn:barber's chair.
Jenn:So he sits.
Jenn:That person sits on a chair that also swivels 360.
Jenn:Right.
Jenn:So it kind of, and they're higher up because they're sitting in that bubble.
Jenn:Their head is in that bubble.
Jenn:And then there's two gunners to either side of him.
Jenn:Right.
Jenn:With bubbles on each side of the aircraft.
Jenn:With bubbles on each side.
Jenn:And then of course, there's a tail gunner in the back.
Jenn:So you really, I mean this is a big crew.
Jenn:When you think about what's on a B 29, it's.
Jenn:10, 11 people who are in tandem making this aircraft work, flying this aircraft.
Jenn:So it was just amazing for, to, to be there with him and for him to
Jenn:show me how all of it worked and then to climb around that thing.
Jenn:Like it's a tunnel and, uh, and I said, how did people get through this tunnel?
Jenn:And he's like, well, they would put mattresses down and they would
Jenn:slide on their flight jackets.
Jenn:But think of like, you know, young men who were just laid down and
Jenn:pull themselves through this tunnel.
Jenn:That's what I'm thinking.
Jenn:Oh my, does he expect me to, he did not expect me to do that.
Jenn:Thank God.
Jenn:But like, it really is a physical demanding job and you just don't think
Jenn:about how physical it is just to, for one flight, for one, you know, uh, mission
Jenn:to be able to, to complete your mission.
Jenn:You have to, there's a lot you have to do and then you
Jenn:probably are on your guns for a.
Jenn:a significant part of your flight as well.
Jenn:And again, just to be that alert and aware, it takes, it takes a lot.
Scott:Yeah.
Scott:And, and so we, I think we were talking, there was about four gunners, right?
Scott:One on each side where the one, uh, probably lead gunner in the, in the,
Scott:that bubble turret, the top bubble turret and the one in the back.
Scott:And one of the cool things about this aircraft, we talk
Scott:about how technologically advanced it was at the time.
Scott:Think about this, the mid 1940s, the one.
Scott:Uh, they designed this aircraft, the B 29, so that this one gunner in the turret
Scott:could actually control every single gun on, on the aircraft that, that turned.
Scott:So he could essentially take control of all of them.
Scott:And I, then I imagined the others could take individual control at the same time.
Scott:So I thought about that.
Scott:I was like, that's actually pretty incredible.
Scott:Yeah.
Scott:For, for that era.
Scott:I mean, they made some serious technological advances and you
Scott:mentioned on the live stream that.
Scott:Yeah.
Scott:You know, governments, and us in the United States specifically,
Scott:have never had more technology advances than we do during wartime.
Scott:Yes.
Jenn:That's when we throw a lot of money at technology and you can see When we
Jenn:increase that cost during wartime towards military advancement and technology.
Jenn:It's when the greatest jumps are made and When you think about it if there was a
Jenn:chance that you lose a gunner you don't lose the gun Right, right, and that's
Jenn:what makes it so so unique is you're not going to wound yourself on that side
Jenn:and not have that gun still available to you, even if you might lose the person.
Jenn:And that's what you have to think about with, you know, technology and defense.
Jenn:And uh, it's just, it's just amazing.
Jenn:That aircraft is, is really something to see.
Jenn:Yeah.
Jenn:And
Scott:one of the neat things that I found on YouTube and I kind of
Scott:downloaded the video and kind of interjected it throughout our video.
Scott:was an old training video.
Scott:I mean, I call it a training video.
Scott:Really, it was more like a kind of a propaganda war video.
Scott:Sure.
Scott:Kind of more for the public than anything else.
Scott:But even in the 40s, it had like animations.
Scott:It would talk about this is where the crew sits and it would animate.
Scott:Here's how the guns would turn.
Scott:And here's what the pilots do.
Scott:And it's that kind of old timey like and the pilots like brave and.
Scott:important and this, that, and the other.
Scott:You know, it's like, it's classic 40s, it's classic 40s kind of war propaganda
Scott:video, but it was, it was very well
Jenn:done.
Jenn:And honestly, no other nation has an aircraft like this.
Jenn:I mean, even Britain wants to use it, but really America is the one who's designed
Jenn:it, made it, and put it into operation.
Jenn:No one has touched anything like this when it comes to flight technology.
Jenn:And that's why the B 29 was so unique and really, like, they couldn't stop it.
Jenn:Like even dropping the bombs, like it couldn't, no one could get up
Jenn:there to stop it from happening.
Jenn:And, um, another thing that I find really unique is the A, we
Jenn:talk about what makes a B 29.
Jenn:A.
Jenn:And Dick kind of mentions that it really was each place is making
Jenn:different parts of this aircraft.
Jenn:Like each manufacturer.
Jenn:Each manufacturer is not rolling off one B 29.
Jenn:One place is making the front, one place is making the middle, one place
Jenn:is making the tail, and then they're kind of putting it all together.
Jenn:So in different areas, they're doing something a little bit different.
Jenn:And that's what makes things, the design is just a little
Jenn:bit different in some places.
Jenn:And that's what makes it.
Jenn:gives
Scott:it the A.
Scott:Yeah.
Scott:And I think we said on the video that the B 29A had like an improved wing design
Scott:and some improved kind of defense systems.
Scott:Um, so again, they're constantly iterating and making those things better because you
Scott:have the best and brightest all focusing their efforts on things like the atomic
Scott:bomb as well as, um, Things like the B 29.
Scott:The B
Jenn:29.
Jenn:And honestly, when you think of the B 29, I want people to think a lot of
Jenn:the Manhattan Project because they're rolling off, I think the first B
Jenn:29 rolled off in 1942 from Seattle.
Jenn:And then the second one is in 1943, uh, and sometimes they would roll
Jenn:off test flight and there was a mishap where the whole crew died.
Jenn:But most of the time someone would test flight it and fly it right back into
Jenn:the hangar and they would fix all the things they were saying from that flight.
Jenn:So these test pilots who are learning this B 29, they're learning.
Jenn:on the go.
Jenn:It is like, we're, this is, this is the, the feeling of urgency of wartime.
Jenn:It's like, we're making this, we're testing it, we're fixing it,
Jenn:we're testing it, we're fixing it.
Jenn:And so those, by the end of 1943, they only had 15 that were airworthy.
Jenn:And even though they had made like a couple hundred only 15
Jenn:were really like safe to fly.
Jenn:So when you think about how much they had to kind of overcome and learn and
Jenn:get better to get this aircraft in the air, it really did take a lot of
Jenn:time and money and people to do this.
Scott:Yeah.
Scott:And, and.
Scott:The other kind of video I found that was kind of, I cut inside of our video was
Scott:another kind of mini documentary I found on YouTube that talked about the B 29 and
Scott:more specifically kind of the operations and lead up to the first atomic bomb drop.
Scott:Right?
Scott:So it talked about how the Japanese at the time, we were fighting
Scott:them back, but they basically said we're going to fight to the last.
Scott:last man, last soldier, last woman, and all this stuff.
Scott:And it kind of all the lead up that a lot of us have learned about,
Scott:especially here in America, um, leading up to that kind of historic day.
Scott:And unbeknownst to us, really unplanned for us when we did our
Scott:live stream on Sunday, that was the 78th anniversary of Hiroshima.
Scott:Um, so it was kind of neat to be able to talk about that in Oppenheimer
Scott:and kind of just remember that, you know, talk about it and, you know,
Scott:talk about what we had learned.
Scott:Yeah.
Scott:Right.
Scott:And obviously we focused on the movie.
Scott:It was kind of an Oppenheimer review.
Scott:And so if you enjoyed that movie, if you've seen it, or if you're
Scott:curious, you can go to our channel and check out that live stream.
Scott:We had a friend of ours on, the history chick, Sarah, um, but talking about
Scott:that and how significant the B 29 was, and it really was, that aircraft
Scott:really was kind of what it was.
Scott:part of the golden age of aviation in, you know, in the forties, you know,
Scott:in the world war two advancements.
Jenn:Exactly.
Jenn:And like you had said, Japan had really, they were faltering, but
Jenn:they had made a stance that they weren't going to surrender until
Jenn:the last person was, was dead.
Jenn:Like they basically had said, we're going to fight until the end.
Jenn:I don't want people to think we weren't feeling that on the other side.
Jenn:Getting these aircraft and that, um, that atomic bomb ready took men and women
Jenn:and their families and sacrifice to get these things ready to do what it did.
Jenn:We were trying to meet the enemy where they stood.
Jenn:And that's really, I mean, it was, and when you think of the 1940s, and that's
Jenn:why I always say it's the greatest generation, everybody was all in.
Jenn:The country was all in people making these aircraft coming off the assembly line.
Jenn:We're women, right, Rosie the Riveters were doing this, men were
Jenn:doing this, kids were helping out at home and it was the country all
Jenn:together who was making this happen.
Jenn:So it really was like if Japan was digging in their heels, America
Jenn:was meeting them where they
Scott:were at.
Scott:Yeah.
Scott:And so that's why, again, it was, it's, it's difficult to describe on
Scott:a podcast what it was like to kind of climb in that classic, just silver
Scott:shiny aircraft, a hundred and forty.
Scott:One feet wide, you know, I don't remember how long, how long the aircraft
Scott:is, but climbing inside that, I mean, you just, you can feel the history
Scott:there and everybody's been commenting on the video saying, you know, Jen,
Scott:we can tell how excited you were and how passionate you were to be there.
Scott:So it really was an experience.
Scott:I encourage you to check out the show notes and watch the
Scott:video on our YouTube channel.
Scott:Um, I think you would really enjoy it if you enjoy this podcast.
Scott:So the B 29 Superfortress soared through the skies during the golden
Scott:years of aviation, leaving an indelible mark on World War II.
Scott:With its pressurized cabins, remote controlled gun turrets, and four engine
Scott:prowess, the B 29 epitomized the pinnacle of mid 20th century aviation engineering.
Scott:Its illustrious legacy was etched into history over the vast expanse
Scott:of the Pacific theater where it undertook daring missions, raids,
Scott:and, of course, the historic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Scott:Beyond its military triumphs, the B 29 Superfortress ignited an enduring
Scott:fascination with the soaring possibilities of flight, forever linking it to
Scott:aviation's golden age and the stories and legends of the greatest generation.
Scott:Thank you for listening to Talk With History Podcast and please
Scott:reach out to us at our website, www.
Scott:talkwithhistory.
Scott:com.
Scott:But more importantly, please share this if you have aviation.
Scott:Fans in your in your friends circle shoot them a text to link to this
Scott:podcast or a video on youtube Because we rely on you our community to grow
Scott:and we appreciate you all every day.