Author Topic: Boeing B-29 Superfortress ideas and inspiration  (Read 104608 times)

Offline Daryl J.

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Boeing B-29 Superfortress ideas and inspiration
« on: April 15, 2012, 01:51:17 AM »
US Navy post war anti submarine variant:  Shortened fuselage immediately fore and aft the wing.  Belly radar.   Overall Gloss Sea Blue, later variants have a gloss white upper surface.  What to do with bomb bay modifications?   I have no idea.   :o   That has yet to be thought through.      Designation: PB-whatever.   Serves well into the P-3 era.   

USAF post war variant as a B-50 alternative:   4 turboprop engines (made by some U.S. appliance company...say Kelvinator or such) and swept tail surfaces not unlike the Bear.   Tip tanks.  Arctic scheme.
kwyxdxLg5T

Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: Boeing B-29 Superfortress ideas and inspiration
« Reply #1 on: April 15, 2012, 04:14:59 AM »
Something that could have been...I am actually tempted to model this up as an operational bird.  Might do it as an in-flight diorama with the operational F-85A shown being either deployed or recaptured.

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Offline elmayerle

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Re: Boeing B-29 Superfortress ideas and inspiration
« Reply #2 on: April 15, 2012, 06:23:49 AM »
What if the R3350 took rather longer to wring the bugs out and the USAAF was forced to go with the W3420-powered B-39 instead?

Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: Boeing B-29 Superfortress ideas and inspiration
« Reply #3 on: April 15, 2012, 09:37:10 AM »
What if the R3350 took rather longer to wring the bugs out and the USAAF was forced to go with the W3420-powered B-39 instead?


Hmmm...does anyone do a conversion for that I wonder?

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Online Jeffry Fontaine

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Re: Boeing B-29 Superfortress ideas and inspiration
« Reply #4 on: April 15, 2012, 11:02:09 AM »
What if the R3350 took rather longer to wring the bugs out and the USAAF was forced to go with the W3420-powered B-39 instead?
Hmmm...does anyone do a conversion for that I wonder?

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Offline Maverick

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Re: Boeing B-29 Superfortress ideas and inspiration
« Reply #5 on: April 15, 2012, 11:07:21 AM »
US Navy post war anti submarine variant:  Shortened fuselage immediately fore and aft the wing.  Belly radar.   Overall Gloss Sea Blue, later variants have a gloss white upper surface.  What to do with bomb bay modifications?   I have no idea.   :o   That has yet to be thought through.      Designation: PB-whatever.   Serves well into the P-3 era.   

USAF post war variant as a B-50 alternative:   4 turboprop engines (made by some U.S. appliance company...say Kelvinator or such) and swept tail surfaces not unlike the Bear.   Tip tanks.  Arctic scheme.


Did a bunch of B-29 alternate profiles, including these:





Regards,

John
Regards,

John

Offline The Big Gimper

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Re: Boeing B-29 Superfortress ideas and inspiration
« Reply #6 on: April 15, 2012, 07:00:38 PM »
RCAF as well!!

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I am giving up listing them. They all end up on the shelf of procrastination anyways.

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Offline Scooterman

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Re: Boeing B-29 Superfortress ideas and inspiration
« Reply #7 on: April 15, 2012, 10:12:02 PM »



Regards,

John


Oh that is SOOOOOOO sexy.  Fool a lot of people too!

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Re: Boeing B-29 Superfortress ideas and inspiration
« Reply #8 on: April 16, 2012, 05:20:40 AM »
There was an escort B-17.  How about an escort -'29??

Offline elmayerle

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Re: Boeing B-29 Superfortress ideas and inspiration
« Reply #9 on: April 16, 2012, 12:00:06 PM »
There was an escort B-17.  How about an escort -'29??
Well, there was at least one B-29 test fitted with a couple remote-control nose barbettes in streamlined pods, that could be a starting point for such an escort.  Perhaps larger caliber automatic guns in the turrets (20mm instead of .50 caliber)?

Offline Maverick

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Re: Boeing B-29 Superfortress ideas and inspiration
« Reply #10 on: April 16, 2012, 12:32:29 PM »
The Russians replaced the 50cal with 23mm cannons in the Tu-4, so replacement of the 50s in the B-29 isn't far fetched.  Just have to get around the USAAF's preference for MGs rather than cannon.  At least the larger weapons would give equal range to the Jap fighters that were toting 20mms.  Not so for the heavier guns tho.

Regards,

John
Regards,

John

Offline Daryl J.

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Re: Boeing B-29 Superfortress ideas and inspiration
« Reply #11 on: April 16, 2012, 01:19:41 PM »
Hmmmm......eyes P2B-5.  Then eyes Academy B-50 kit. Hmmmm......    :D :D :D
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Offline Scooterman

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Re: Boeing B-29 Superfortress ideas and inspiration
« Reply #12 on: April 17, 2012, 09:23:08 PM »
Hmmmm......eyes P2B-5.  Then eyes Academy B-50 kit. Hmmmm......    :D :D :D

HEY!  I claimed it first!!!  :icon_punal:

Kidding.  Hell if you do one, then I'm forced to do a ECM/recce version, ala P4M-1Q   8)

Offline Daryl J.

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Re: Boeing B-29 Superfortress ideas and inspiration
« Reply #13 on: July 15, 2012, 01:53:01 AM »
Nah.....I don't ever buy into the 'I've got dibs on a whiff' idea.   ;D :)    Excellent is excellent.

So stretch a B-50 fuselage, put a solid nose on it and a tandem cockpit on top a la B-47.   :icon_music: :icon_music:
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Offline Geoff

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Re: Boeing B-29 Superfortress ideas and inspiration
« Reply #14 on: July 15, 2012, 07:47:23 AM »
We are doing a "Dambusters" build using B-29s. For a "Hollywood Does the Dambusters" build. Its a follow on from "Bollywood Does the Battle of Britain". :icon_ninja:

Offline Daryl J.

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Re: Boeing B-29 Superfortress ideas and inspiration
« Reply #15 on: July 15, 2012, 07:57:52 AM »
Where?   

My life right now doesn't allow for virtually any building but I make a great lurker.

TIA,
Daryl J.
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Offline Geoff

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Re: Boeing B-29 Superfortress ideas and inspiration
« Reply #16 on: July 15, 2012, 08:21:55 AM »
Where?   

My life right now doesn't allow for virtually any building but I make a great lurker.

TIA,
Daryl J.

Sorry - if thats to me its at a local modelling club where a few of us do Wifs.

Offline Daryl J.

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Re: Boeing B-29 Superfortress ideas and inspiration
« Reply #17 on: July 15, 2012, 08:28:10 AM »
It is to you.  And thanks.  Whiffs within a modeling club, that's cool.
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Offline arc3371

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Re: Boeing B-29 Superfortress ideas and inspiration
« Reply #18 on: July 18, 2012, 09:40:33 AM »

Offline Daryl J.

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Re: Boeing B-29 Superfortress ideas and inspiration
« Reply #19 on: July 18, 2012, 10:54:44 AM »
 :)
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Offline Alvis 3.1

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Re: Boeing B-29 Superfortress ideas and inspiration
« Reply #20 on: July 18, 2012, 03:25:34 PM »
http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal9/8301-8400/gal8342-Tupolev-Petrie/00.shtm

or, for ease of reading:
1/144 Tupolev TU-4T "Bolshoi"

With the advent of jet aircraft, the leadership of the Soviet Union began to express concerns about keeping up with the decadent Westerners. One area urgently looked into was the Jet Bomber. With this type of aircraft, planes could hit capitalists fast and hard, without fear of interception

One of the first attempts was basically a jet engined version of the Tu-4 "Bull", which itself was a reverse engineered B-29. It seemed simple enough, add some jets to an existingly fast aircraft, and quick like borscht, you'd have a new, faster plane. Well, almost...

It turns out the airfoil design used on the B-29 had a limiting Mach factor, so the addition of jet engines only added 50 knots airspeed. The thirsty nature of early jet engines also meant that a massively large part of the payload had to be given over to fuel, and range suffered drastically as well. It turned out, the Tu-4T was capable of a slightly faster attack, at only 25% of the range of a conventional Tu-4, with only 31% of it's payload. A fully fuelled Tu-4T, taking off from Moscow, could only reach Kiev before requiring refuelling. Needless to say, the plane wasn't put into production, with only three prototypes being built.

However, the ever busy CIA and MI-6 were able to photograph the Tu-4T at a Soviet airfield, and it was assumed to be an operational aircraft. It was designated "Bolshoi" under the NATO naming protocols, and remained in the west's Cold War planning directives as late as 1967.







I got the idea from an old issue of Mechanix Illustrated. Academy lent their 1/144 scale B-29 to the cause, with engines from an old Revell 707 helping out.

Alvis 3.1

Offline tc2324

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Re: Boeing B-29 Superfortress ideas and inspiration
« Reply #21 on: July 18, 2012, 03:31:29 PM »



Very similar to me `plastic` Tu-90 it built back in July last year.......  ;)







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Online Jeffry Fontaine

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Re: Boeing B-29 Superfortress ideas and inspiration
« Reply #22 on: July 18, 2012, 04:05:24 PM »
Very similar to me `plastic` Tu-90 it built back in July last year.......  ;)




Is that the dreaded "bamboo curtain" or the "cane curtain" behind your model? :)

Looks quite convincing with the FOD covers in place and the NMF. 
« Last Edit: July 18, 2012, 04:08:16 PM by Jeffry Fontaine »
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Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: Boeing B-29 Superfortress ideas and inspiration
« Reply #23 on: July 18, 2012, 05:25:04 PM »
All these recent posts have been brilliant!!! Well done all of you! :) :) :)
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Offline kitnut617

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Re: Boeing B-29 Superfortress ideas and inspiration
« Reply #24 on: July 18, 2012, 09:18:37 PM »
Oddly enough, I've had a similar idea as this except to use a ------ Lancaster.

The idea came about because when I had ordered some 1/72 Buccaneer S1 intakes from Heritage Aviation, and I received the 1/48 set instead.  Ian would have replaced them but I decided to keep them for the Lancaster project along with the discarded large scale Mosquito wing tanks I wouldn't use for my Twin Lancaster project.  I had bought both of Paragon's 1/48 200 Gal. tanks and 1/32 100 Gal. tanks to see which would look better.  On the Jet Lanc' I'm planning on installing one of the tank front ends onto the inner nacelle instead of the engine.