Wichita, KS — The restorers of a Boeing B-29 Superfortress that almost met its end as a target at a desert weapons-testing range celebrated a milestone March 23 when the reconstructed aircraft was rolled out of a hangar in , for public viewing and a symbolic presentation to the Air Force.
The rollout event for Doc, a B-29B built in 1944, was timed to occur at McConnell Air Force Base precisely 70 years after the bomber’s original delivery in 1945 to the Army Air Forces in Wichita. Guests invited to attend Doc’s re-emergence included members of the board of the nonprofit restoration group Doc’s Friends, sponsors, donors, and volunteers who worked on the project.
Doc’s rescue and subsequent restoration effort date to 1987, when Tony Mazzolini, a Korean War B-29 flight engineer, and now president of the United States Aviation Museum in South Euclid, Ohio, learned of the aircraft’s existence during a search for a B-29 that could be restored.
Getting Doc this far along a path to becoming a flying museum and “a tribute to the greatest generation” has “not been an easy road.” The rollout was likely to be an emotional occasion for many, said Tom Bertels, chairman of the marketing steering committee of Doc’s Friends, and managing partner of ad agency Sullivan Higdon and Sink.
Doc was one of a squadron of eight B-29 Superfortresses named for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Mazzolini had launched what Bertels described as “a worldwide search” for a restorable B-29 when he learned that a B-29 was parked in the desert for use as a target at a Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake test range.
“He saw it, and after a whole bunch of finagling they let him have it,” Bertels said.
It took Mazzolini 11 years to become Doc’s owner in 1998, but Mazzolini is “a guy who never gives up,” Bertels said.
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It’s great to see that a 2nd B29 will be taking to the air along with FIFI.