Evening star., 1944-06-25


pappy, whose glory is not to be dimmed
by any achievements of his direct de-
scendant, Bit Flying Fortress or to lose
luster by anything "his" grandson B-29
Super Fortress will chalk up.
Saw Light in 1887
He was rather a long time a-borning,
was Grandpappy, since he was conceived
way back in 1880 but did not see the
light of day until 1887 Instead Of
name he was merely designated as BIS.
Grandpappy was conceived and born
in the Boeing Aircraft Co.'s Seat
tie plant whence came the first Flying
Fortresses and where his grandson Super
Fortress was born. And, as so often hap
pens with ambitious youngsters impa-
tient for their day in the sun, old Grand
pappy's grandson has noSed out all the
rest of the clan from the family home.
The Seattle plant has been done over
for the exclusive possession of this third
generation-B-29
Something very super was Grand
pappy when he came into being Boeing
engineers were looking ahead, figuring
on just how big bombers could be, what
range, speed and altitude could be
achieved, how many baskets of eggs"
they could carry. And Grandpappy was
no belt job-every inch of his then
startling body was hand done.
Thought He Was Too Big
When Army Air Corps men gave him
the once over, they did so with tongue
in check, scratched the back of their
necks and for the most part concluded
that this giant was too big and too cum
bersome. He was just q dodo-looked
like a bird but couldn't fly.
That was in 1887. Long since with
bigger. faster, deadlier planes rolling
on the lines. nobody would have said
any plane was too big to fly.
But nobody could then imagine any,
thing as big as Grandpappy doing
flying Job. His wings had a spread of
$50 feet-47 feet greater than that of
his. son, Flying Fortress, not yet born.
His wings were so big that a catwalk
board nacelle enabling mechanics to
make repairs in flight.
Inside the plane were crew Quarters
four hunks, a galley, commanders
cabin, lavatory and refrigerator. His
gas tanks made 1t possible for Grand
pappy to fly AZ hours without refueling.
Grew Too Fast
The only trouble with Grandpappv
in his youth was that he had grown too
1ast. He was like a STRIPPING whose
oooy has grown faster than his motor
system-his heart. Back in 1887 engine
designers had not caught up with the
creams and plans of plane designers.
Grandpappy's heart was Pratt
Whitney Wasp-only 1000 horsepower.
The most powerful then in existence. it
was not up to Grandpappy's needs,
though on his test flight he stayed up
rs minutes and did 200 miles per hour.
The test showed that Grandpappy was
ahead OF his time, SO the blue prints
and specifications were scaled down and
soon off the assembly lines came the
flylne FortreSS-the BIT
His Famous Sons
What these sons of the old man have
done is matter of official record which
needs no repeating. Everybody knows
their record of destruction in every
theater OF the global war and especially
are they known in the land of the SUPER
men.
SO we'll do the Hitlerites know the
deadllness of the Flying Fortress that
Goerlng had diagram printed show
ing the LuftWaffe the many spots where
not to attack a Fortress and the dia-
gram showed only one vulnerable SPOT.
Then INTO the Fortress went the nose
gun-and according to the Goerine
sketch one could assume that the For
tress had achieved invulnerability.
Would that were true.
But they're tough and almost bv the
grace of God they seem to hold to-
gether while the crews literally bring
them in on "a wing and a prayer" And
with recently installed navigation de-
vices, they have become inconcievablv
accurate at hitting the target, even
when an impenetrable cloud bank is
below.
The only incident of sportsmanship
reported from Germany was in connec-
ton with bombing raid by the 6th
Air Force during which the crew of
Flylng Fortress wrecked the target
Messerschmitt plant at Regensburg, and
not single bomb fell on a hospital
which was in the area. The Luftwaffe
radloed Congratulations on your accu-
racy. We don't know how you do it,
For quite some time Grandpappy Just
loafed round the hangers. Then came
bigger and better engines and Grand
pappy was off to make record. In
1899 he won his first laurels-a fight to
Chile carrying serum and supplies for