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History on Display: The B-29 at Sun 'n Fun Is the Only One Still Flying - The Ledger

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History on Display: The B-29 at Sun 'n Fun Is the Only One Still Flying - The Ledger
Mar 28th 2012, 03:46

<p>LAKELAND | History landed at the Sun 'n Fun Fly-In on Tuesday.</p><p>A B-29 bomber, like the one that dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan in World War II, will be on display in the Warbird section through Monday.</p><p>It's the only flying B-29 in the world.</p><p>"It reminds me of my younger days," said Dom Davidson, 85, as he stopped under a wing in his motorized wheelchair. Davidson said he designed weather reconnaissance equipment for the B-29 Superfortress when he worked for General Electric in the early 1950s.</p><p>Dozens of visitors walked around the massive bomber Tuesday and waited to take a tour of the cockpit.</p><p>And if you have $595, you can take a 30-minute ride in the back of the bomber.</p><p>A front seat sells for $995 and a ride in the nose bombardier seat goes for $1,495.</p><p>People interested in reserving a seat in the historic aircraft can visit www.rideb29.com.</p><p>The plane, which is named Fifi, is based in Addision, Texas, at the Cavanaugh Flight Museum when it's not on tour.</p><p>David Oliver, an operations officer and pilot for the Commemorative Air Force, said the long-range bomber will be in Jacksonville after the Fly-In.</p><p>Built by Boeing in 1944, Fifi was one of 4,000 produced by the company.</p><p>It was unique because it was the first pressurized bomber manufactured for the United States and one of the largest.</p><p>Oliver described the bomber as one of the most important contributions that led to the to the end of World War II.</p><p>Six people flew in the B-29 in the 1940s, but 70 years later Oliver has a crew of 11.</p><p>The B-29 that landed at the Fly-In was left for scrap in the early 1970s with 20 to 30 other B-29s at the Navy's China Lake weapons facility in California. It was used for target practice, Oliver said, but it was salvageable.</p><p>A crew selected the four-engine propeller plane to rebuild and took good parts from other B-29's at the weapons facility to add to Fifi.</p><p>He said the engines were notorious for having problems. Recently, four engines were replaced in the bomber for about $4 million.</p><p>Oliver is nearing his one-year anniversary of flying the bomber, and he aspires to fly it for many more years.</p><p>"Hopefully, until I'm old," he said.</p>

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