B-29 & B-50 Superfortresses, and C-97/ Stratocruiser

[Daryl J.]

Since there is sizable support here suggesting that What-if aircraft are entirely feasible airplanes, I was wondering if this was a reasonable option for the B-29.


Extend the foreward fuselage of the 1/48 Monogram kit by approximately 2" and the behind wing fuselage by approximately 1" creating essentially a ''stretch-29''.       The four turboprop engines have been extensively discussed here with much approval so that part is viable too.

Would a all-black ELINT or all-black low-level CIA Vietnam version be in the world of ''that just might have been''?


ARC, as many of us know, is doing a 'heavies group build and I'd love to contribute something well off the beaten path, yet makes some wonder if they missed something in their history lessons.


Thoughts?


Daryl J.

[Jennings]

Hi Daryl,

In Whiff-land anything is feasible.  As for stretching it, that seems like an awful lot of trouble.  The turboprop proposals for the B-29/B-50 eventually turned into the real life B-52, so that's not out of the question.

As for colors - by and large ELINT airplanes weren't black, as there was no need for them to be.  They usually stood off from Badguyland and sucked electrons up.  It was the PHOTINT guys that were black and got shot at most often

Actually there were black B-29s in Korea that they used to drop agents and such, so that's not even Whiffing really!

J

[Daryl J.]

Hi Jennings,

Perchance you know this, perchance not:   Dad was based at Kadena in 1955 for a brief stint where he took care of some very special B-29's known as the fuzzy bunny Squadron.    He's free to talk very little about them even to this day other than that they went deep into China post-war, flew with a ''civilian crew'', had all serial numbers removed from every possible part, no tags in their clothes, and were all black.      Over the years I've asked and asked for more, but that's about as far as he goes other than to say they lost one aircraft while he was there.  The stateside papers reported the aircraft was ''lost on a routine training mission over the sea of Japan" when in all actuality it was downed inside Chinese borders with the loss of all aboard.


Thusly, I've always had an interest in painting a B-29 all black in honor of those annonymous men.    The Stretch-29Turbo is just an extension of said interest.   B)


BTW, what is PHOTINT?

Daryl J.

[Andrew Gorman]

There were a LOT of Soviet bomber projects that were hot rodded B-29s- some sniffing around on the web should turn something up.  Iremember a bunch from the old Warplanes of the World- jet Tu-4s, stretched and turboprop B-29-oids, and more.  
Andrew

[Brian da Basher]

This thread reminds me of that Dennis Hopper movie Riders On the Storm. Their B-29 was ordinary on the outside but full of electronic gear. They lived in that thing and somehow remained airborne for over 10 years. A great flick, especially if you find it in the bargain bin at your local video store.

Brian da Basher

P.S. A B-29 mod with stretched fuse and four pusher engines to compliment the original tractor engines would be interesting. Also a stepped nose variant would have a cool predatory look to it. I used the 1/144 Minicraft B-29 to bash something resembling an updated Douglas B-19, using the cockpit from a B-26 and nose glazing from an HE-111.

P.P.S. I'm not an expert but I think PHOTINT is shorthand for Photographic Intelligence.

[retro_seventies]

carrying on from what andy said, the tu-4 eventually evolved into the tu-80 and the tu-85

is this more what you are thinking about making your b-29 into?


Tu-80


Tu-85


good luck with your project - sounds like it could grow into something very cool indeed!

[K5054NZ]

This would be one heck of a great build to see...bring on the Stretch29 Turbo!

[Daryl J.]

So that's the roots of the Bear...........

Daryl J., eyebrows up in mid-forehead

[retro_seventies]

yes indeedy, in simplest terms, it all goes back to the b-29, via the tu-4, then the tu-70 commercial airliner (a tu-4/b-29 with a stepped nose), to the tu-80, then tu-85, and then we are into more "beary" territory.

this is worth noting - the tu-64, the project that the tupolev okb were working on that was cancelled by stalin in favour of copying the b-29



as is the tu-156 awacs proposal with jets instead of contraprops.



here's hoping that some of this hits that modelling sweet spot,

Ben  

[Allan]

Hi Daryl,
Why don't you run the surname of Pinkava past your dad and see if it hits the jackpot? He may have known him.
Allan in Canberra

[gooberliberation]

I think this here was used by the PLAAF until recently

[gooberliberation]

yes indeedy, in simplest terms, it all goes back to the b-29, via the tu-4, then the tu-70 commercial airliner (a tu-4/b-29 with a stepped nose), to the tu-80, then tu-85, and then we are into more "beary" territory.

this is worth noting - the tu-64, the project that the tupolev okb were working on that was cancelled by stalin in favour of copying the b-29



as is the tu-156 awacs proposal with jets instead of contraprops.



here's hoping that some of this hits that modelling sweet spot,

Ben  

I remember seeing something on the history channel about the Tu-4

They showed a model of a possible tupolev bomber, i assume the same project as the the Tu-64... but with A stepped cockpit a-la Pe-8

[waynos]

I made a comment once on another site about how I could see the roots of the Tu-95 bear design in the Tu-4/B-29 and was basically told to stop being stupid. It seems quite obvious to me, but they couldn't see it at all.

Apparently the Tu-64 was perfectly sound, it was certainly a looker, but Stalin preferred the 'sure fire' option of cloning the B-29 which was already known to work perfectly well.

[Captain Canada]

Yowzers...that Russina thing is too cool ! They must have a bazillion cool what-ifs that we don't even know about !



I built a CDN B-29 once, as a SAR bird, with red wingtips etc., a yellow fuselage band and underwing air-droppablr lifeboats  

[Jennings]

BTW, what is PHOTINT?

Hi Daryl,

WOW!  Interesting stuff!  Yes, the "civilian agencies" operated some very odd and unique airplanes back in those days.  Even the more "open" USAF intel community did some funky stuff back then too.  My uncle was based at Yokota in the very early '60s flying aboard the C-130B-II "Sun Valley" SIGINT birds.  They used to regularly change tail numbers on their birds, and he said they had to land at Tachikawa one time due to a runway obstruction at Yokota (just across town).  They ended up parking right next to another C-130 (a trash hauler) that had the same tail number painted on it!  He said the airlift squadron commander was puzzled and not a little displeased

PHOTINT = photographic intelligence

For the record, and since *MANY* publications get this all screwed up, the intelligence disciplines are:

PHOTINT = photographic
HUMINT = human intel (spies & defectors)

Then there is the big category of SIGINT = Signals Intelligence.  Under the broad umbrella of SIGINT fall all of the following sub-categories:

COMINT = communications intel (bad guy communications of all types)
ELINT = electronic intel (bad guy radar and other electronic non-comms signals)
RADINT = a subset of ELINT dealing specifically with radar signals
TELINT = telemetry intel (bad guy missile testing signal gathering)

So now you know, and I'll have to shoot all of you

J