Famed B-29 Doc and C-47 That’s All … Brother Featured
The B-29 Doc History Restored Tour will travel the Western U.S. with stops in St. George, Utah, and Chino, California between 07 and 10 September 2023. The C-47 known as That’s All…Brother—the lead aircraft by which the first Allied troops were delivered to Normandy on D-Day, 06 June 1944, will join the B-29 Doc for both tour stops.
B-29 Doc executive director Josh Wells stated: “B-29 Doc is one of only two B-29 Superfortress aircraft still airworthy and flying, and the Commemorative Air Force (CAF) Central Texas Wing’s C-47 That’s All…Brother place in history about its service to liberate France during World War II is a remarkable story. Having both of these historic aircraft on the same ramp to showcase their stories, as well as to give people an up-close and personal experience with history, will be a unique opportunity.”
Tickets for flights aboard Doc and That’s All … Brother are currently on sale for the St. George, Utah and Chino, California tour stops.
CAF Central Texas Wing leader Deena Clausen remarked: “Connecting the C-47 and its mission of delivering the first troops on D-Day, which led to victory in Europe, with the mission of the B-29, which ultimately delivered victory over Japan, provides a one-of-a-kind experience for warbird and aviation enthusiasts. Partnering with B-29 Doc to honor the Greatest Generation, while preserving our shared mission of keeping these warbirds flying, broadens our reach to allow even more people to see these historic aircraft.”
A noble joint endeavor undertaken yearly for purpose of affording aviation enthusiasts opportunity to view and even purchase rides aboard the superbly-restored, historically-significant machine, the B-29 Doc History Restored Tour and B-29 Doc Flight Experience begin in early April and thunder on until late October. The annual tour/mission, which includes ground and flight deck tours, sees Doc amass an average of one-hundred-hours of flight-time.
The B-29 Doc Flight Experience spans approximately ninety-minutes and includes a thirty-minute ride. Prior to takeoff, passengers receive crew briefings and learn about the history of the B-29 and the pivotal role the aircraft played in U.S. history and the Allied victories of the Second World War.
Built in 1944 as part of a production run of 1620 aircraft constructed at Boeing’s Wichita, Kansas facility and allocated the military Serial Number 44-69972, the aircraft known today as Doc was delivered to the United States Army Air Forces in March 1945. The aircraft did not see combat and, in 1951, was converted to a radar calibration aircraft and based at New York’s Griffiss Air Force Base.
Squadron members at Griffis engaged in the endearing if not peculiar practice of naming their B-29s after characters in Disney’s 1937 milestone film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In keeping with the convention, 44-69972 was ascribed the sobriquet Doc—the bespectacled leader of Snow White’s gem-mining entourage.
In 1955, Doc, modified as a TB-29, was moved to Yuma County Airport in Arizona and pressed into service as a target-towing tug. One year later, the aircraft was retired from United States Air Force service and sent to south-central California’s Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake for use as a ballistic missile target.
Doc’s airframe was acquired by the United States Aviation Museum of Cleveland, Ohio, for restoration to flight status. After extensive restoration work at the Boeing plant in Wichita, Kansas—the selfsame facility in which Doc was assembled—the aircraft was moved in March 2007 to the Kansas Aviation Museum. In February 2013, the venerable bomber—that never dropped a bomb—was acquired by the Doc's Friends, Inc.
That’s All…Brother is a C-47A troop-carrier aircraft that led the Airborne Invasion of Normandy on 06 June 1944, D-Day—the commencement of Operation Overlord. The aircraft carried paratroopers of the U.S. Army’s famed 101st Airborne Division into France, dropping them behind enemy lines to support amphibious forces attacking from the north. Throughout the remainder of WWII, That’s All… Brother served in Operation Dragoon, Operation Market Garden, the Relief of Bastogne, and Operation Varsity. After the war, the aircraft was sold as surplus and its contributions to history came perilously close to being forgotten. Fortuitously, in 2015, the CAF plucked the aircraft from boneyard ignominy and restored it to its WWII fighting form. In June 2019, That’s All… Brother returned to Europe for the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of D-Day. In June 2024, That’s All … Brother will return yet again to England and France to take part in
the 80th anniversary commemorations of the D-Day invasion.
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