Boeing B-29 Superfortress

Design and development Boeing began work on pressurized long-range bombers in 1938, in response to a United

States Army Air Corps request. Boeing's design study for the Model 334 was a

pressurized derivative of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress with nosewheel undercarriage.

Although the Air Corps did not have money to pursue the design, Boeing continued

development with its own funds as a private venture.

The Air Corps issued a formal specification for a so-called "superbomber", capable of

delivering 20,000 lb (9,100 kg) of bombs to a target 2,667 mi (4,290 km) away and

capable of flying at a speed of 400 mph (640 km/h) in December 1939.

It featured a pressurized cabin, all dual wheeled, tricycle landing gears, and a remote,

electronic fire-control system that controlled four machine gun turrets.

Boeing received an initial production order for 14 service test aircraft and 250 production

bombers in May 1941, this being increased to 500 aircraft in January 1942.

The first prototype made its maiden flight from Boeing Field, Seattle on 21 September

1942

Manufacturing the B-29 was a complex task. It involved four main-assembly factories: a

pair of Boeing operated plants at Renton, Washington (Boeing Renton), and Wichita,

Kansas (now Spirit AeroSystems), a Bell plant at Marietta, Georgia ("Bell-Atlanta"), and

aMartin plant at Omaha, Nebraska ("Martin-Omaha" - Offutt Field).

B-29 Superfortress General characteristics

Crew: 11 (Pilot, Co-pilot, Bombardier, Flight Engineer, Navigator, Radio Operator, Radar

Observer, Right Gunner, Left Gunner, Central Fire Control, Tail Gunner)

Length: 99 ft 0 in (30.18 m)

Wingspan: 141 ft 3 in (43.06 m)

Height: 27 ft 9 in (8.45 m)

Wing area: 1,736 sq ft (161.3 m²)

Aspect ratio: 11.50:1

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

Zero-lift drag coefficient: 0.0241

Drag area: 41.16 ft² (3.82 m²)

Performance

Maximum speed: 357 mph (310 knots, 574 km/h)

Cruise speed: 220 mph (190 knots, 350 km/h)

Stall speed: 105 mph (91 knots, 170 km/h)

Range: 3,250 mi (2,820 nmi, 5,230 km)

Ferry range: 5,600 mi (4,900 nmi, 9,000 km,[75])

Service ceiling: 31850 ft [24] (9,710 m)

Rate of climb: 900 ft/min (4.6 m/s)

Wing loading: 69.12 lb/sqft (337 kg/m²)

Power/mass: 0.073 hp/lb (121 W/kg)

Lift-to-drag ratio: 16.8

Armament

Guns:

eight or 10× .50 in (12.7 mm) Browning M2/ANs in remote-controlled turrets.[76] (omitted

from Silverplate B-29s)

2× .50 BMG and 1× 20 mm M2 cannon in tail position (the cannon was later removed)[N 11]

Bombs: 20,000 lb (9,000 kg) standard loadout

The nose and the cockpit were pressurized, between fore and aft pressurized sections

was a long tunnel over the two bomb bays so as not to interrupt pressurization during

bombing. Crews could crawl back and forth between the fore and aft sections, with both

areas and the tunnel pressurized. The bomb bays were not pressurized

. Cockpit

General Electric Central Fire Control system

B-29 Guns

The revolutionary General Electric Central Fire Control system on the B-29 directed four

remotely controlled turrets armed with two .50 Browning M2 machine guns each. There

were five interconnected sighting stations located in the nose and tail positions and three

Plexiglas blisters in the central fuselag. Five General Electric analog computers (one

dedicated to each sight) increased the weapons' accuracy by compensating for factors

such as airspeed, lead, gravity, temperature and humidity. The computers also allowed a

single gunner to operate two or more turrets (including tail guns) simultaneously. The

gunner in the upper position acted as fire control officer, managing the distribution of

turrets among the other gunners during combat The tail position initially had two .50

Browning machine guns and a single M2 20 mm cannon. Later aircraft had the 20 mm

cannon removed,[30]and sometimes replaced by a third machine gun.

Battle of Kansas

The combined effects of the aircraft's highly advanced design, challenging requirements,

and immense pressure for production, hurried development and caused setbacks.

Changes to the production craft came so often and so fast that in early 1944, B-29s flew

from the production lines directly to modification depots for extensive rebuilds to

incorporate the latest changes.

the B-29 project was unprecedented in Aviation history: from inception, to drawing board

and mass production took three years, at a time when such a design should have taken

five years just to become a prototype. Instead the engineering design, production and

testing were being undertaken simultaneously, with all of the expected and unexpected

problems.

at the end of 1943, although almost 100 aircraft had been delivered, only 15 were

airworthy. The basic design of the B-29 was sound, but significant shortcuts had been

taken in the rush to get it into service, causing numerous defects and quality problems.

o The biggest headaches were caused by the new R-3350 engines, which were

constantly overheating. the uppermost five cylinders (every 25 hours of engine

time) and the entire engines (every 75 hours). . This problem was not fully cured

until the aircraft was fitted with the more powerful Pratt & Whitney R-4360 "Wasp

Major" in the B-29D/B-50 program, which arrived too late for World War II.

o Other problems arose with defective pressure seals around the cockpit windows

and sighting blisters, which needed precise fitting to avoid leakage.

o Also causing problems were the sighting systems (four analog computers) for the

remote controlled defensive armament, as well as the turrets themselves.

o Then came electrical failures, caused by faulty Cannon plugs, which supplied

connections throughout the ten miles (16 km) of wiring in each B-29.

o Sub-standard glass in the cockpit transparencies meant the pilots had problems

due to the distortion.

o A minor "beef-up" was found to be needed on the wing structures

o When General Arnold visited the Wichita Plant on 11 January 1944 he wanted

175 combat ready B-29s for the XX Bomber Command. As he was shown around

the assembly lines he picked out the 175th fuselage section and signed it

commenting: "This is the plane I want. I want it before the First of March. When he

discovered two months later that no B-29s were actually combat ready, and that

some had been sitting waiting for parts for two months or more Arnold was livid.

o This prompted an intervention by General Hap Arnold to resolve the problem, with

production personnel being sent from the factories to the modification centers to

speed modification of sufficient aircraft to equip the first Bomb Groups in what

became known as the "Battle of Kansas". This resulted in 150 aircraft being

modified in the six weeks between 10 March and 15 April 1944. Specialist USAAF

ground crew and technicians were called in from all over the country and 600

workers were pulled from the Wichita assembly lines. Subcontractors were told to

stop all work on non-B-29 components until they had fulfilled their commitments

o With the thermometer often reading below zero the 1,200 technicians who had

gathered at the Wichita factory and the Modification Centers were being asked to

modify each bomber inside and out.

Firstly the wings needed to have some of the plating removed, the

required "beef-ups" were added then each piece of skin riveted back in

place.

At the same time the cowl flaps, which controlled airflow through and

around the troublesome engines, were being modified.

Each piece of glass installed in the nose had to be pulled out and

replaced with new distortion free panes. After that the pressurization had

to be rechecked: 75 B-29s in total needed new glass.

Internally every electrical plug had to be removed, disassembled and

resoldered - a total of 586,000 connections in completed aircraft, plus

those on the assembly lines and in wiring harnesses ready for installation.

A lot of the work was being done in the middle of the frequent snow-

storms: it was so cold crews could only work for 20 minutes at a time, with

most of the jobs requiring delicate handling

Operational history In September 1941, the Army Air Forces plans for war against Germany and Japan

proposed basing the B-29 in Egypt for operations against Germany as British airbases

were likely to be overcrowded. Air Force planning throughout 1942 and early 1943

continued to have the B-29 deployed initially against Germany, only transferring to the

Pacific after the end of the war in Europe.

By the end of 1943, however, plans had changed, partly due to production delays, and

the B-29 was dedicated to the Pacific Theater.

Operational history China A new plan implemented at the direction of President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a promise

to China, called Operation Matterhorn, deployed the B-29 units to attack Japan from four

forward bases in southern China, with five main bases in India, and to attack other targets

in the region from China and India as needed. Keep China in the war holding down

Japanese forces.

The Twentieth Air Force was formed in April 1944 to oversee all B-29 operations. In an

unprecedented move, the commander of the USAAF, General Henry H. Arnold, took

personal command of this unit and ran it from the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

If airpower delivers an independent service would be created.

B-29s started to arrive in India in early April 1944. The first B-29 flight to airfields in China

(over the Himalayas, or "The Hump") took place on 24 April 1944.

The first B-29 combat mission was flown on 5 June 1944, with 77 out of 98 B-29s

launched from India bombing the railroad shops in Bangkok and elsewhere in Thailand.

On 15 June 1944, 68 B-29s took off from bases around Chengdu, 47 B-29s bombed the

Imperial Iron and Steel Works at Yahata, Japan. This was the first attack on Japanese

islands since the Doolittle raid in April 1942.The first B-29 combat losses occurred during

this raid, with one B-29 destroyed on the ground by Japanese fighters after an emergency

landing in China,[44] one lost to anti-aircraft fire over Yawata, and another disappeared

after takeoff from Chakulia, India, over the Himalayas This raid, which did little damage to

the target, with only one bomb striking the target factory complex, nearly exhausted fuel

stocks at the Chengdu B-29 bases

Japan was bombed on: 7 July 1944 (14 B-29s), 29 July (70+), 10 August (24), 20 August

(61), 8 September (90), 26 September (83), 25 October (59), 12 November (29), 21

November (61), 19 December (36) and for the last time on 6 January 1945

Brutal Japanese offensive against bases.

-29s were withdrawn from airfields in China by the end of January 1945. Throughout this

prior period, B-29 raids were also launched from China and India against many other

targets throughout Southeast Asia, including a series of raids on Singapore and Thailand.

The B-29 effort was gradually shifted to the new bases in the Mariana Islands in

the Central Pacific, with the last B-29 combat mission from India flown on 29 March 1945.

Overall, Operation Matterhorn was not successful. The nine raids conducted against

Japan via bases in China succeeded only in destroying Ōmura's aircraft factory.

XX Bomber Command lost 125 B-29s during all of its operations from bases in India and

China, though only 22 or 29 were destroyed by Japanese forces; the majority of the

losses were due to flying accidents

Operational history Pacific

in addition to the logistical problems associated with operations from China, the B-29

could only reach a limited part of Japan while flying from Chinese bases. The solution to

this problem was to capture the Mariana Islands, which would bring targets such

as Tokyo, about 1,500 mi (2,400 km) north of the Marianas within range of B-29 attacks.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff agreed in December 1943 to seize the Marianas.

A joint US forces invaded Saipan on 15 June 1944

Operations followed against Guam and Tinian, with all three islands secured by August.

Naval construction battalions (Seabees) began at once to construct air bases suitable for

the B-29, commencing even before the end of ground fighting. In all, five major air fields

were built: two on the flat island of Tinian, one on Saipan, and two on Guam. Each was

large enough to eventually accommodate a bomb wing consisting of four bomb groups,

giving a total of 180 B-29s per airfield.

The first B-29 arrived on Saipan on 12 October 1944, and the first combat mission was

launched from there on 28 October 1944, with 14 B-29s attacking the Truk atoll.

The 73rd Bomb Wing launched the first mission against Japan from bases in the

Marianas, on 24 November 1944, sending 111 B-29s to attack Tokyo. For this first attack

on the Japanese capital since the Doolittle Raid in April 1942,

Problems with Jetstream, weather fronts, interception, engines affecting bombing

accuracy.

In typical American fashion, they found the meanest S.O.B. they could to clean up the

G*****M mess.

Japanese cities congested, built of wood, low level industries contribute to war effort.

In early 1945, Major General Curtis Lemay, commander of XXI Bomber Command, the

Marianas-based B-29-equipped bombing force . ordered most of the defensive armament

and remote-controlled sighting equipment removed from the B-29s under his command

so that they could carry greater fuel and bomb loads as a result of the change of role from

high-altitude, daylight bombing with high explosive bombs to low-altitude night raids using

incendiary bombs. To maximize the effectiveness of the firebombing attacks, LeMay

ordered the B-29s to fly at the low altitude of 5,000 feet (1,500 m) .

More bombs carried, greater accuracy, less strain on engines.

With these new tactics, a total of 302 B-29s participated in the Operation

Meetinghouse raid on Tokyo on the night of 9–10 March, with 279 arriving over the target.

The raid was led by special pathfinder crews who marked central aiming points. It lasted

for two hours. The raid was a success beyond General LeMay's wildest expectations. The

individual fires caused by the bombs joined to create a general conflagration, which would

have been classified as a firestorm but for prevailing winds gusting at 17 to 28 mph (27 to

45 km/h).[4] When it was over, sixteen square miles of the center of Tokyo had gone up in

flames and nearly 100,000 people had been killed. Fourteen B-29s were lost. The B-29

was finally beginning to have an effect.

On the night of 13–14 March, eight square miles of Osaka went up in flames. On 16–17

March, three square miles of Kobe were destroyed, and on 19–20 March in a return visit

to Nagoya, three more square miles were destroyed. This destructive week had killed

over 120,000 Japanese civilians at the cost of only 20 B-29s lost.

The most commonly cited estimate of Japanese casualties from the raids is 333,000

killed and 473,000 wounded. There are a number of other estimates of total fatalities,

however, which range from 241,000 to 900,000. In addition to the loss of mostly civilian

life, the raids caused extensive damage.

In Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, "the areas leveled (almost 100 square miles (260 km2))

exceeded the areas destroyed in all German cities by both theAmerican and English air

forces (approximately 79 square miles (200 km2). 136 B-29s were downed during the

campaign to Japan's cities and contributed to a large decline in industrial production.

Name of Japanese Percentage of the Equivalent in size to

city firebombed city destroyed the following

American city

Tokushima 85.2 Ft. Wayne

Fukuyama 80.9 Macon

Kofu 78.6 South Bend

Nara 69.3 Boston

Tsu 69.3 Topeka

Okayama 68.9 Long Beach

Mito 68.9 Pontiac

Takamatsu 67.5 Knoxville

Shizuoka 66.1 Oklahoma City

Tsuruga 65.1 Middleton

Nagaoka 64.9 Madison

Maebashi 64.2 Wheeling

Imabari 63.9 Stockton

Gifu 63.6 Des Moines

Kagoshima 63.4 Richmond

Toyohashi 61.9 Tulsa

Hamamatsu 60.3 Hartford

Isezaki 56.7 Sioux Falls

Ichinomiya 56.3 Sprinfield

Kobe 55.7 Baltimore

Kochi 55.2 Sacramento

Kumagaya 55.1 Kenosha

Akashi 50.2 Lexington

Himeji 49.4 Peoria

Hiratsuka 48.4 Battle Creek

Tokuyama 48.3 Butte

Sakai 48.2 Forth Worth

Saga 44.2 Waterloo

Chosi 44.2 Wheeling

Utsunomiya 43.7 Sioux City

Numazu 42.3 Waco

Kure 41.9 Toledo

Sasebo 41.4 Nashville

Uhyamada 41.3 Columbus

Ogaki 39.5 Corpus Christi

Siumonoseki 37.6 San Diego

Kawasaki 36.2 Portland

Omuta 35.8 Miami

Osaka 35.1 Chicago

Yokkichi 33.6 Charlotte

Omura 33.1 Sante Fe

Okazaki 32.2 Lincoln

Kumamoto 31.2 Grand Rapids

Oita 28.2 Saint Joseph

Miyakonoio 26.5 Greensboro

Miyazaki 26.1 Davenport

Nobeoka 25.2 Augusta

Fukuoka 24.1 Rochester

Moh 23.3 Spokane

Sendai 21.9 Omaha

Yawata 21.2 San Antonio

Hbe 20.7 Utica

Amagasaki 18.9 Jacksonville

Nishinomiya 11.9 Cambridge

Toyama 99 Chattanooga

Fukui 86 Evansville

Kuwana 75 Tucson

Hitachi 72 Little Rock

Hachioji 65 Galveston

Matsuyama 64 Duluth

Yokohama 58 Cleveland

Tokyo 51 New York

Wakayama 50 Salt Lake City

Shimizu 42 San Jose

Chiba 41 Savannah

Nagoya 40 Los Angeles

Aomori 30 Montgomery

Operation Starvation Although less publicly appreciated, the mining of Japanese ports and shipping routes

(Operation Starvation) carried out by B-29s from April 1945 significantly affected Japan's

ability to support its population and move its troops.

Operation Starvation was an American naval mining operation conducted in World War

II by the Army Air Forces, in which vital water routes and ports of Japan were mined by air

in order to disrupt enemy shipping.

The mission was initiated at the insistence of Admiral Chester Nimitz who wanted his

naval operations augmented by an extensive mining of Japan itself conducted by the air

force. LeMay assigned one group of about 160 aircraft of the 313th Bombardment

Wing to the task, with orders to plant 2,000 mines in April 1945.

The mining runs were made by individual B-29 Superfortresses at night at moderately low

altitudes. Radarprovided mine release information. This mining proved the most efficient

means of destroying Japanese shipping during World War II. In terms of damage per unit

of cost, it surpassed strategic bombing and the United States submarine campaign.

Eventually most of the major ports and straits of Japan were repeatedly mined, severely

disrupting Japanese logistics and troop movements for the remainder of the war with 35

of 47 essential convoy routes having to be abandoned.

For instance, shipping through Kobe declined by 85%, from 320,000 tons in March to

only 44,000 tons in July. Operation Starvation sank more ship tonnage in the last six

months of the war than the efforts of all other sources combined.

The Twentieth Air Force flew 1,529 sorties and laid 12,135 mines in twenty-six fields on

forty-six separate missions. Mining demanded only 5.7% of the XXI Bomber Command's

total sorties, and only fifteen B-29s were lost in the effort. In return, mines sank or

damaged 670 ships totaling more than 1,250,000 tons.

After the war, the commander of Japan's minesweeping operations noted that he thought

this mining campaign could have directly led to the defeat of Japan on its own had it

begun earlier. Similar conclusions were reached by American analysts who reported in

July 1946 in the United States Strategic Bombing Survey that it would have been more

efficient to combine the United States' effective anti-shipping submarine effort with land-

and carrier-based air power to strike harder against merchant shipping and begin a more

extensive aerial mining campaign earlier in the war. This would have starved Japan,

forcing an earlier end to the war.

WWII Summary

The Twentieth Air Force lost 414 B-29s during attacks on Japan

Much of Japan's industrial capacity was also destroyed by Allied bombing. Over 600

major industrial facilities were destroyed or badly damaged, contributing to a large decline

in production

Approximately 40 percent of the urban area of the 66 cities subjected to area attacks

were destroyed ]This included the loss of about 2.5 million housing units, which rendered

8.5 million people homeless.

To achieve this, the American Twentieth Strategic Air Force, in concert with its Allies,

dropped 160,800 tons of bombs on the Japanese home islands. Of this total, 147,000

tons of bombs were dropped by the B-29 bomber force. Around 90 percent of the

American tonnage fell in the last five months of the war.

The financial cost of the campaign to the United States was $4 billion; this expenditure

was much lower than the $30 billion spent on bomber operations in Europe, and a small

proportion of the $330 billion the US Government spent on the war.

Japanese payed the price for militarists refusal to surrender.

Did not talk about atomic bombs, firebombing often overlooked.

UK

American post-war military assistance programs loaned the RAF enough Superfortresses

to equip several RAF Bomber Command. The aircraft were known as the Washington B.1

in RAF service, and served from March 1950 until the last bombers were returned in early

1954. 87 loaned from the USAF as the Washington B.1

Soviet re-engineering of the B-29 During 1944 and 1945 five B-29s made emergency landings in Soviet territory after

bombing raids on Japanese Manchuria and Japan.

The Tu-4 first flew on 19 May 1947, piloted by test pilot Nikolai Rybko.[19] Serial production

started immediately, and the type entered large-scale service in 1949.

Entry into service of the Tu-4 threw the USAF into a panic, since the Tu-4 possessed

sufficient range to attack Chicago or Los Angeles on a one-way mission, and this may

have informed the maneuvers and air combat practice conducted by US and British air

forces in 1948 involving fleets of B-29s.

Eight hundred and forty-seven Tu-4s had been built when production ended in the Soviet

Union in 1952, some going to China during the later 1950s

Korean War and postwar service Sovet fighters appeared over Korea, and after the loss of 28 aircraft, future B-29 raids

were restricted to night-only missions, The B-29 was notable for dropping the large

"Razon" and "Tarzon" radio-controlled bomb in Korea, mostly for demolishing major

bridges,

Boeing B-50 Superfortress The Boeing B-50 Superfortress strategic bomber is a post–World War II revision of

the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, fitted with more powerful Pratt & Whitney R-4360 radial

engines, stronger structure, a taller fin, and other improvementsHowever, the later B-50

Superfortress variant (which was initially designated B-29D renamed for congress)

was good enough to handle auxiliary roles such as air-sea rescue, electronic intelligence

gathering,air-to-air refueling, and weather reconnaissance.

The B-50D was replaced in its primary role during the early 1950s by the Boeing B-47

Stratojet, which in turn was replaced by the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress.

The final active-duty KB-50 and WB-50 variants were phased out in the mid-1960s, with

the final example retired in 1965. Seen picture of recon jets refulled on ground in Vietnam.

Boeing built 370 of the various B-50 models and variants between 1947 and 1953.

Lucky Lady II Lucky Lady II is a United States Air Force Boeing B-50 Superfortress that became the

first airplane to circle the worldnonstop when it made the journey in 1949, assisted by in-

flight refueling. Total time airborne was 94 hours and 1 minute.

LeMay cited the significance of the mission as indicating that the Air Force now had the

capability to take off on bombing missions from anywhere in the United States to "any

place in the world that required the atomic bomb"

The aircraft's crew were each awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and were

honoured by the National Aeronautic Association with its annual Mackay Trophy,

recognizing the outstanding flight of the year and by the Air Force Association with its Air

Age Trophy.

After flying 23,452 mi (37,742 km) he aircraft flew at altitudes between 10,000 to 20,000 ft

(3,000 to 6,100 m) and completed the trip around the world at an average ground speed

of 249 mph (401 km/h; 216 kn)

Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter The Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter is a long-range heavy military cargo aircraft developed

from the B-29 and B-50 bombers. Design work began in 1942, with the prototype's first

flight being on 9 November 1944, and the first production aircraft entered service in 1947.

followed by its commercial airliner variant, the Boeing Model 377 Stratocruiser in 1947.

. fitting an enlarged upper fuselage onto a lower fuselage and wings which were

essentially the same as those of the B-29 Superfortress with the tail, wing, and engine

layout being nearly identical.

Between 1947 and 1958, 888 C-97s in several versions were built, 811 being KC-

97 tankers

A heavily modified line of outsized-cargo variants of the Stratocruiser is the Guppy / Mini

Guppy /Super Guppy which remain in service today with operators such as NASA.

A transport developed from the B-29 was the Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter, first flown in

1944,

Boeing 377 Stratocruiser The Boeing 377 Stratocruiser was a large long-range airliner developed from the C-97

Stratofreighter military transport, a derivative of the B-29 Superfortress. The Stratocruiser's

first flight was on July 8, 1947.[2] Its design was advanced for its day, its innovative

features included two passenger decks and a pressurized cabin, a relatively new feature on

transport aircraft. It could carry up to 100 passengers on the main deck plus 14 in the

lower deck lounge; typical seating was for 63 or 84 passengers or 28 berthed and five

seated passengers.

The Stratocruiser was larger than the Douglas DC-6 and Lockheed Constellation and cost

more to buy and operate. Its reliability was poor, chiefly due to problems with the four 28-

cylinder Pratt & Whitney Wasp Major radial engines and their four-blade propellers. Only 55

Model 377s were built for airlines, along with the single prototype.

Aero Spacelines, Inc. is an American aircraft manufacturer which made a name for itself

by converting Boeing 377Stratocruisers into the famous Guppy line of airplanes, re-

engineered solely for transporting oversized cargo such as space exploration vehicles.

Survivors A total of 3,970 B-29s were built.

Twenty-two B-29s are preserved at various museums worldwide, including one flying

example; Fifi, which belongs to the Commemorative Air Force, along with four complete

airframes either in storage or under restoration (including one to airworthy), eight partial

airframes in storage or under restoration, and four known wreck sites.

Important part of aviation history, defence of the west.

Conclude on a lighter note, what we were fighting for…