How rare?? It's one of the last two functioning models remaining on Earth! See, most folks on Steemit know me for my nature posts and some travel stories, but I'm also a big history buff. I've always enjoyed military history, especially the US Civil War and both World Wars. Earlier today, I went to a massive event called "WWII Weekend" in Reading, Pennsylvania. There I got to see a rare site:
This is "Fifi", the next to last B-29 Superfortress.
Now before I go any further, I want to point out that a good amount of non-history buffs might also know of "Fifi" here, believe it or not. If you happen to watch AMC's show "Better Call Saul", you saw this aircraft on the last season I think. Jimmy used it for one of his commercials while working at HHM:
While today's show had all sorts of WWII vehicles and aircraft, seeing the B-29 is always a treat. And not only do they exhibit the bomber, but they take it out on flights several times each day of the event! As I mentioned before, Fifi is the last 1 of 2 of it's kind, meaning there's only two flight-worthy examples of this model in the world. That's pretty crazy considering that Boeing made around 4,000 of these things.
It's also kind of crazy that there aren't more of these planes around due to their historical significance. The B-29 known as "Enola Gay" was the one that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Then again, that's a piece of the US history that many might like to forget about.
I digress. In short, I was thrilled to see Fifi in action again today. I was also glad to have our better camera with me to capture these images of her. The Commemorative Air Force, which owns many historical aircraft, rescued here from a navy training ground in the 1970's where she was being used as a missile target. We were so close to losing our B-29's for good, so kudos to the CAF for the rescue.
Length: 99 ft 0 in (30.18 m)
Wingspan: 141 ft 3 in (43.06 m)
Height: 27 ft 9 in (8.45 m)
Empty weight: 74,500 lb (33,800 kg)
Loaded weight: 120,000 lb (54,000 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 133,500 lb (60,560 kg) ; 135,000 lb plus combat load
Powerplant: 4 × Wright R-3350 -23 and 23A Duplex-Cyclone turbosupercharged radial engines, 2,200 hp (1,640 kW) each
Thanks for reading! These are all original photos from today's show, except for the screen grab from AMC's Better Call Saul.