Will Be Housed Outdoors Until Temporary Hangar Is Ready

Aero-News has learned "Doc," a restored WWII-era B-29 Superfortress, rolled to its new home Tuesday. The massive bomber will soon be displayed at the Kansas Aviation Museum.

"It's wonderful," said Connie Palacioz, 82, who worked as a riveter at Boeing's Wichita, KS plant during World War II. "I'd like to see it when it flies. We'll do our part. We have to keep the project going."

Palacioz is among a group of volunteers who have helped bring the storied B-29 -- which was part of a squadron of planes named after characters in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, according to the Wichita Eagle -- to the museum. 

The plane (shown above, photo from September 2006) will reside outdoors temporarily, until a temporary canvas enclosure is constructed.

"It means a great deal to me," said Dori Almire, another volunteer on the project. "All my family was in the service during World War II, and I had an uncle in Guam who saw B-29s fly overhead all the time. It's part of history."

As Aero-News reported in December, the museum will soon begin a fundraising program to construct a permanent 40,000-square-foot hangar. That facility -- which will cost around $4 million, according to museum director Teresa Day -- will house "Doc" and other vintage planes.

The move from Boeing's Integrated Defense Systems plant to the aviation museum was not a simple task. Cliff Gaston -- project manager for the United States Aviation Museum in Wickliffe, OH, which owns the plane -- took it upon himself to clear a path ahead of the bomber. He kicked rocks out of the way, and made sure the ground was as smooth as possible.

"The tires are $1,859 apiece," Gaston explained.

Gaston and volunteers alike are concerned with "Doc" having to spend time outdoors, unprotected from the elements, before the temporary hangar is ready. Springtime is around the corner... and in Kansas, that often means thunderstorms and hail.

"The upper skin is pretty soft," Gaston said. "The wing is pretty solid, but the fuselage and horizontal and vertical stabilizers -- hail will just eat 'em up. That really bothers me."

A chain-link fence surrounds the plane, to keep onlookers from touching the plane's gleaming aluminum skin. At night, officers from Boeing and McDonnell Air Force Base will provide security at the site.

Volunteers said "Doc" still needs fuel bladders, and its engines will need to be rebuilt before it can take to the skies again. That will take at least two more years, they added.

FMI: www.b-29doc.com