Boeing B-29A Superfortress
Renton's Superfortress — a stronger three-piece wing and four guns in the forward top turret · First built 1944 · In service 1944
The B-29A was built only at Boeing's Renton plant in Washington state, a factory originally built for the US Navy. Its wing was assembled from three sections instead of two, which simplified production and strengthened the airframe, and it spanned about a foot (30 cm) more than the Wichita-built B-29. Because B-29s had proved vulnerable to head-on fighter attacks, the forward upper turret was doubled to four guns from production block 20.
All 1,119 B-29As were built between 1944 and May 1946; the last Superfortress of all left Renton on 28 May 1946. The type flew through the rest of the war and on into the Korean War, and many were converted after the war into trainers, reconnaissance and test aircraft. The Royal Air Force received 88 B-29As, which it flew as the Washington B.1.
The other flying Superfortress, the Commemorative Air Force's "FIFI" (44-62070), is a B-29A-60-BN. Delivered in 1945 and later a TB-29A trainer, it spent years as a target at China Lake before the CAF flew it out in 1971; after a re-engining with hybrid Wright R-3350s it returned to the air on 5 August 2010.
