Historic bomber touches down at Henderson airport
With its four propellers churning and its polished aluminum fuselage glistening in the afternoon sun, “Fifi,” the last flying World War II-era B-29 bomber, landed smoothly at Henderson Executive Airport on Monday.
Without the aid of a modern hydraulic system for controlling the big bomber — 100,000 pounds with a 141-foot wingspan — Flight Commander David Oliver said he used sheer muscle to “wrestle it through the sky with just pulleys and cables.”
“It’s a little bit like flying an 18-wheeler with nine flats,” he said after the hour-plus flight from Van Nuys, Calif.
The nonprofit Commemorative Air Force brought the iconic Boeing Superfortress bomber to the Las Vegas Valley this week with other Greatest Generation warplanes, including a P-51 Mustang and a C-45 Expeditor. They are making a swing through the Southwest for public rides and cockpit tours to pay tribute to the historic battles the aircraft fought.
“You think with all the times I’ve gotten the privilege to do this that it would get old. But it never gets old flying in a B-29,” said Oliver, 33, who hails from Plano, Texas.
“It’s a special opportunity to get to be able do it, the only B-29 flying,” he said. “You’re always thinking about the men and women, really particularly the men who flew them and the women who built these airplanes. … It’s neat to think that so many people have given so much for our country with this particular machine.”
The B-29 was christened as a tribute to the late Josephine Agather, whose nickname was “Fifi,” and whose husband, Victor Agather, financed the search and restoration of the bomber for the Texas-based Confederate Air Force, predecessor of the Commemorative Air Force.
Oliver said the aircraft was built in July 1945 and never saw combat. It was acquired by the CAF in the early 1970s, after group members rescued it from the Navy proving grounds in China Lake, Calif., where it was positioned as a missile target. The plane was restored and flown until 2006, when the chief pilot decided to ground it for a complete power-plant retrofit. During the next four years, all four engines were replaced with custom-built hybrid engines.
Fifi has flown coast-to-coast since 2010.
During World War II, about 4,000 B-29s were built, with the first flown in 1942. They entered active service in 1944 to replace older B-17 and B-24 bombers.
A pair of B-29s carried out the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, flown by crews who trained in Wendover along the Nevada-Utah border.
Superfortress bombers later saw action in the Korean War and were a staple in the U.S. Air Force until the late 1950s.
Gates at Henderson Executive Airport will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday for public tours of Fifi and other aircraft flown by the Commemorative Air Force. The airport is located at 3500 Executive Terminal Drive. Admission is $10 per adult and $5 per child, age 10 to 17.
Cockpit tours of the B-29 will be available when the airplane is not in motion. For information on ride tickets and reservations, go to www.AirPowerTour.org. The cost for a ride in a CAF airplane ranges from $75 to $1,795 for a flight in the P-51 Mustang. There is a discount for buying tickets online.
Review-Journal writer Francis McCabe contributed to this report. Contact Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308. Find him on Twitter: @KeithRogers2.
