B-29 "Flatbed"- Finished+more pics

[sandiego89]

Brief backstory: In the Pacific theatre during World War II, there was a need to transport certain outsized high priority cargo by air.  A damaged B-29 on Guam was modified to serve as a prototype by cutting down the fuselage and installing a flat section on the fuselage spine.  The aircraft proved successful in moving bulky cargo such as fuselage sections, damaged aircraft, small boats and construction equipment.  

Inspiration comes from the 1970's Lockheed flatbed proposal.

The kit: Minicraft 1/144 B-29.    

The Lockheed flatbed inspiration


Photo sources http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19800023869_1980023869.pdf

[Steel Penguin]

thats mad!   utterly brilliant

[RussC]

Thats incredible as an idea. If it was around at the time, probably would have been the Space Shuttle carrier aircraft versus a 747. Also would be a great supplement to the Guppy series. Then apply the idea on the other side of the pond and you have a Brabazon truck and Soviet applications too.

An idea as wide open as the cargo floor on it!

[Captain Canada]

Nevermind that.....let me see some more pics of your Pine Island ! Looks awesome. What is that, a little fork lift ? I was thinking of coverting one of the deck vehicles into one.



Of, and the flat bed is an awesome idea !

[sandiego89]

Nevermind that.....let me see some more pics of your Pine Island ! Looks awesome. What is that, a little fork lift ? I was thinking of coverting one of the deck vehicles into one.



Of, and the flat bed is an awesome idea !

Captain Canada, I built the Pine Island about 15 years ago for my late Dad as the USS CURRITUCK AV-7 (the Pine Island is a a sister ship of the 4 vessels in the Currituck class) that he served on as medical officer in the early 1960's.  The model is very tired after years on the shelf, dust and several drops and was about to enter "dry dock" for a refresh.  The build was pretty straight out of the box.  Not a forklift, I thought the hangar was too sparse so I scratch built an engine on an engine stand out of styrene.  The major change was to the aircraft.  The kit comes with the Mariner, but I wanted to build a PBM Marlin as it would have had in the 1960's.  The wings and the hull are quite similar.  I added the cockpit hump out of putty, changed the floats from a lattice support to a single strut and changed the entire tail to the T-tail.  The vertical stab is now missing, and the horizontal stab is now mounted low- I think my mom re-glued it there after a dusting incident!  My plan was to WHIF it to support P6M SeaMasters and SeaDarts, which will require some real scratchbuilding due to the strange scale.  It is a neat kit, and i just saw it reissued, so perhaps I keep this one stock, and get another for a WHIF.    

[Captain Canada]

For sure keep this one stock. You had built and modified it for your Dad, and then it was further modified by your Mom....so now it's priceless !



It is a neat kit, and close enough to 350 scale ( at that scale ) for me, so adding 350 scale a/c is no problem !

[Dizzyfugu]

thats mad!   utterly brilliant

Second that. An idea with a vision! Got to be taken to the hardware stage! 

[TsrJoe]

a brill idea, theres vehicles etc avaliable in the scale too 
possibly a problem with the mid mounted wing? mounted lower?

def looking forward to seeing it progress 

best wishes, cheers, Joe

[RussC]

a brill idea, theres vehicles etc avaliable in the scale too 
possibly a problem with the mid mounted wing? mounted lower?

def looking forward to seeing it progress 

best wishes, cheers, Joe

  Yes, some of those Minicraft 144th kits of their earlier era are great whiffing fodder. They are "severely challenged" if building as stock and trying to get a great replica of accuracy ! The Boeing 377 airliner kit by same could make a great flatbed as well, or their very rough 707 for a jet version.

[Weaver]

Aye Caramba - there's a flatbed where you don't want an unsecured load.....

a brill idea, theres vehicles etc avaliable in the scale too 
possibly a problem with the mid mounted wing? mounted lower?

def looking forward to seeing it progress 

best wishes, cheers, Joe

Also, don't forget that British N-guage railway stuff is 1/148th which is near-as-damn it....

[sandiego89]

Work has begun.  Thanks for the comments.  TsrJoe, I thought about a low wing, but I am going to keep this as minimal change as possible to reflect a modification done in the Pacific away from the factory, so no low wing.  I could have gone for external loads only, but want enough flat space to park a few vehicles, strap down replacement wing or fuselage sections etc.

RussC, you are reading my mind.  I looked very hard at the 707/KC135 and actually bought a KC-97 on the bargain table, but wanted to go with the first of a possible family line.

I have cut into the the fuselage.   It will be unpressurized., but still room for rear scanners- got to have soemone watch the engines.

Marking the cut out


Chop top.  1/144 F4U Corsair for scale reference


New deck for the "flat bed"  

[coolpop6307]

This is looking good 

[sandiego89]

Tail structure.  Extended the vertical stabilizer support forward and down.  Added a doubler plate to reinforce the tail.

[Hman]

The Russians did this to thier B29s...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDkxdpg6--g

[tc2324]

Great idea and I`m really looking forward to seeing this one develope.