B-29 Flying Boat conversion Idea

[Cobra]

Hey Guys, What If the B-29 had Been Converted into a Flying Boat or Used as the Basis for a Flying Boat during WW2? Would it have Worked,Would it Be a Flop,or Would it Have Caused the Axis Powers Enough Headaches to Force them to Build Aircraft to Counter it?  Just Got Inspired by Those Questions & because the B-24 had been Built in a Navy Version.  What Say You? Thanks For Looking.Dan

[dumaniac]

Well you probably know about the sea dart - a jet based sea plane.  I have started a Me262 conversion into a sea plane - the B17, B24 and B29 would be ...... challenging

[PR19_Kit]

Boeing almost did that, by using some of the B-29 technology, notably the wing design, on the XPBB-1 Sea Ranger, but they only built one of them.

See here http://www.boeing.com/history/boeing/xpbb1.html

A straight B-29 fuselage conversion would have needed to be VERY tall to avoid the bow wash rendering the crew totally blind during take-off and landing though. Think Saro Princess to see what I mean.

[chrisonord]

The strato-tanker would have been a better fuselage to start off with wouldn't you say Kit??
Chris.

[pyro-manic]

The C-97 would be a better shape, certainly, though the biggest problem is that the wing is mounted fairly low on the fuselage - you'd either need a very tall hull, or move the wing to a shoulder position to get the props clear of the water.

[PR19_Kit]

All of the above!

It's getting more and more like a Princess every minute....... 

[Weaver]

The lower hull of the Airfix Clipper is a reasonable fit over the lower hull of a Minicraft Stratocruiser: I know, 'cos I bought the kits with this in mind.... As has been stated, moving the wing to a shoulder position is the main sticking point. Still going to do it for Patchwork World at some point though....

[pyro-manic]

Cool! I very much look forward to that...

[philp]

"Flying" boat?

[MiB]

From which movie?

[pyro-manic]

Argh, I've seen that! Can't remember what it's called, but basically a dis-armed B-29 is being flown somewhere for some reason (might be to a museum) and goes way off course by accident. It crashed on an island where a forgotten Japanese outpost is, and the small garrison doesn't know that the war has been over for years. They end up chopping the crashed airframe up and turning it into a boat to escape.

[GTX]

The Last Flight of Noah's Ark

Regards,

Greg   

[McGreig]

I built this back in 2005. The model started as a simple whiff - what if there had been a flying boat version of the Tu-4? However, I'd barely started cutting plastic when I discovered that I wasn't the first person to come up with this brilliant idea and that Andrei Tupolev had already thought of it .

Tupolev's project 504 was based on his ultimate Tu-4 (B-29) development, the one-off Tu-85, which had increased length and span and more powerful engines. It was designed as an inter-continental bomber, refuelling from submarines to give it the range to reach the USA.

However, lacking a Tu-85 in kit form, I stuck to the Tu-4 but the shape and proportions are based on the 504.

The fuselage comes from a Hasegawa Emily. It has a 20mm plug ahead of the wing, an additional 20mm extension at the tail and all the gun positions and windows have been filled. The wing roots have been considerably reduced in chord and the planing bottom has been lengthened by about 30mm and the step extended by approximately 10mm.

The fin, rear fuselage, turrets, flying surfaces and engines come from an Airfix B-29 (well, two B-29s to be exact) with the tailplanes being relocated to mid-fin. As no landing gear is required, the long inner engine nacelles have been replaced by an additional set of short outer nacelles.

Unfortunately, it's been a bit of an unlucky model. I was never very happy with it, as completion was rushed for the 2005 Nationals. My daughter then managed to break it not once but twice and it was damaged again in the house move four years ago. Because a lot of work went into it, I want to restore it but I keep running up against problems. Not the least of which is that I'll have to sacrifice another Emily as one of the things that I'm least happy with is the cockpit and canopy area. However, I've decided to bite the bullet and see if I can get it restored in time for Southern Expo.

[NARSES2]

Hope you can get that done for SE, be great to see

Chris