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B-29 ?Doc? gets new windows, new instruments

Posted by bdk on Tue Feb 11, 2003 10:38:29 AM

B-29 ?Doc? gets new windows, new instruments

Two major milestones were reached last week as volunteers continue the long and arduous task of rebuilding ?Doc,? a B-29 Superfortress now being restored to flying status at Boeing Wichita?s Northwest Hangar.

The first new window ?glass? for the airplane was placed in the engineer?s emergency hatch by Rick Bloom, director of engineering for Lee Aerospace. Bloom said the Wichita firm was replacing all 32 windows in the aircraft with a much stronger, lighter and more durable window.

?The windows aren?t really glass, but stretched acrylic,? he said. ?We will form, trim and bond each window.?

Lee Aerospace is doing the work on a volunteer basis and plans to have all the windows in place and sealed by the end of the summer.

Bloom said the next step is replacing the eight windows for the ?nose bowl.? Lee Aerospace has the brackets and the bowl itself and is hand-fitting the windows.

Rick Otto of Otto Instruments in Ontario, Calif., is providing all the instrumentation for ?Doc.?

?A hobby and passion of mine always has been antiques and to restore airplanes,? Otto said. ?I?ve helped do the instruments for several museum pieces, and I heard about Boeing?s effort to restore one of the B-29s.

?That?s how we got started, and I?ve just been trying to help get the project off the ground ever since.?

?Doc? was built at Boeing Wichita?s Plant II in 1944 and spent 42 years sitting in the desert before being returned to Wichita for restoration.

The Superfortress was one of a squadron of eight airplanes named for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Through the perseverance of Tony Mazzolini, founder of the United States Aviation Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, and the help of Boeing Wichita, its employees and numerous volunteers, the project is moving slowly but markedly toward flying status.

?We are getting closer and closer to stages of final assembly and then completion, and it?s gratifying to see the steps along the way,? Mazzolini said. ?The quality is superb, of course, and our volunteers want to roll this out looking like a brand new production model. They are doing a great job of it.?

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