Pros And Cons Of The B-29 Superfortress

The Superfortress That Almost Wasn’t The B-29 Superfortress is yet another example of the American people’s production power in the years of World War Two, but this was not without its setbacks. The aircraft was initially thought unneeded by military and government leaders, the production and modifications were rushed, and the airframe was almost not battle ready in time to make a difference in the war, and yet somehow the United States made it happen years faster than it should have taken to produce such a massive machine. The B-29 should have been focused on earlier in World War II. Because The B-29 allowed the United States to operate on a more strategic level the B-29 was the single most influential piece of equipment in the Pacific theater.
The Design and Production The need for a high altitude, high speed, long range bomber was a view only shared by a few in military leadership of the time. General Curtis LeMay (2006) and General Hap Arnold were two of
There was no funding for production, but the Boeing aircraft company took it upon themselves to begin development anyway, in hopes that with the right product, the military would indeed put in an order for more. Boeing’s best minds went to work developing prototypes that could meet the Army Air Corp’s request of an aircraft that could deliver 20,000 pounds of bombs, at a distance of 2,667 miles, and at speeds of 400 miles per hour (Anderton, 1979, p. 11). The Army Air Corp liked the design submitted by Boeing and contracted for several to be built for static and flight testing in August of 1940, followed by an order of 14 more for testing and 250 for the war effort nine months later. With more of America’s leadership getting on board with the program, the order was increased further to 500 aircraft in January of 1942. This created a logistical and production challenge to Boeing right