This is a fascinating 2 part interview with Kermit Weeks. Tibbets tells the story of the B-29 development and why Boeing wanted to cancel the development. Tibbets was instrumental in helping Boeing finish the development.
He talks about the preparation of the mission, and what happened during that mission.
Tag Archives: Aviation History
Paul Tibbets Interview
He Still Headed The Wrong Way
A German Wrong Way Corrigan?
I just finished watching a YouTube video on a comparison between the Focke-Wulf FW-190 and the P-51 Mustang.
Learned a lot of things. I knew that the Mustang really came into its own when a Rolls Royce test pilot, Ronald Harker, decided to substitute the Allison V12 for a Merlin. Didn’t realize that (A) the Merlin was still more powerful at 20,000 feet than the Allison was at sea-level, and (B) fuel consumption was significantly improved. It was a win-win, and turned the Mustang from a good fighter to an icon. Actually it was a “win-win-win” as it gave the Mustang the high altitude performance that it lacked.
The Mighty Eighth
Last year, I screened The Cold Blue, which was an amazing film. In WW2, 5 famous Hollywood directors, William Wyler, John Huston, John Ford, George Stevens, and Frank Capra went into harm’s way with small film crews and documented the war. John Ford, for example shot – I believe- the only footage of Midway as it was being attacked.
I’m in danger of swaying into this fascinating story, but I will say one thing. The war affected them all, and it can be reflected in their post war work. George Stevens, for example, having seen so much death and destruction in Europe, in making Shane, thought gunfire and being shot should be portrayed realistically, a first for a Hollywood Western.
Filed under Air Force, Army Aviation, Movie Review, Patriotism, USAF, Valor
All That, And They Are Trying To Kill You Too

A beautiful P51-D I shot at the 2007 Reno Air Races
The other day, I wrote a bit about the talk given by WW2 aces Bud Anderson and Dean Laird.
What a day that was. I felt I was a witness to living history. What an honor it was to meet these 2.
And me being me, I had to buy Anderson’s book at the museum store to learn more. Just started it, but I figured any book about flying that has accolades by Ernest Gann, and forwards by Chuck Yeager and Günther Rall, has to be some aviation ride.
I’ve just started it, and Anderson is describing the battle he had as shown from the History Channel.
What I didn’t know was the workload involved in flying that plane while someone’s trying to kill you.
Filed under Airplanes
Technological Progress
Over at ChicagoBoyz, someone made an observation that in transportation, most of the progress was made in a 50 year period by 1969.
Which got me thinking.
The cars that many of us baby boomers idolized, such as the Jaguar E-Type, Corvette Sting Ray, Shelby Cobra – all came out about 50 years after cars first started making inroads with the Model T.
Filed under Airplanes
The Wichita-built vintage Boeing B-29 Superfortress under restoration inside a Boeing hangar may fly as soon as this summer, volunteers on the project say.
