In early 1940 the United States Army Air Forces challenged several aircraft manufacturers to come up with a bomber with a speed of 400 mph, a range of more than 5,300 miles and the capability of carrying a bomb load weighing 2,000 lbs. for at least half of that distance. Boeing won the contract with its design for the B-29, a plane that would ultimately play a decisive role in bringing an end to the war in the Pacific.
The giant B-29 or Superfortress as it was known, spanned 141 feet, 3 inches from wing tip to wing tip and measured 99 feet from nose to tail. Its 27-foot nine-inch high tail turret was, as Boeing publicists liked to remind the public, the height of a three-story house. Boeing fitted the plane with a number of novel features, including pressurized compartments. Pressurization meant the planes needed a remotely controlled gun system since crew members couldn't sit in the gun turrets as they did in unpressurized aircraft. In order to meet the Army's requirements for range and bomb load, the B-29 had to be heavy - it was the heaviest production airplane in the world at that time. The bomber also had two bomb bays, which were designed to release bombs alternately so that the aircraft's balance was maintained. After the war, some B-29 bomb bays were modified to carry research planes that were launched from the air.
The B-29's most infamous World War II missions were the two atomic bomb drops on Japan in August 1945. By that time, the Superfortress had been in operation for more than a year. First used in an attack on Bangkok in June 1944, they shortly afterwards became part of a concentrated bombing campaign on the Japanese mainland.
small dna tube by rocks