Doc the B-29 Superfortress, the China Lake Desert Rescue, and the Wichita Homecoming That Returned the Last Bomber to the Sky

On July 17, 2016, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress lifted off from Wichita, Kansas for the first time in decades - 71 years after the type was at the peak of its operational power over the Pacific. Getting her there took 29 years, over 300,000 volunteer hours, and one stubborn man from the city that built her.

What Made the B-29 Superfortress Different From Every Other WWII Bomber?

Boeing began designing the Superfortress in the late 1930s after the Army Air Corps demanded an aircraft that could fly higher, farther, and carry more than anything previously built. The result was the most technically demanding aircraft ever put into mass production.

Loaded, she weighed 60 tons and spanned 141 feet tip to tip. Four Wright R-3350 Duplex Cyclone engines - each producing 2,200 horsepower - pushed her to around 220 mph at 30,000 feet, placing her above most enemy fighters and most of the weather.

She introduced pressurized crew compartments to heavy bomber operations. A crawlway tunnel above the bomb bay allowed crew to move between the forward and rear sections. Gunners in the rear controlled remote-operated turrets through analog fire control computers that, in 1943, amounted to combat science fiction.

How Dangerous Was It to Build and Fly the B-29?

The R-3350 had a chronic tendency to overheat. Baffles cracked, oil sprayed onto exhaust manifolds, and engine fires were common on early operations. General Hap Arnold called the program “the most difficult production job in aviation history.”

In the spring of 1943, a prototype caught fire on a test flight over Seattle and came down into a meatpacking plant, killing the entire crew and several workers on the ground. Development nearly ended there.

Flying combat missions carried its own compounded dangers. Crews operated pressurized systems at extreme range over open ocean - often 1,000 miles of open water with no divert option - while managing engine temperatures that engineers back in Seattle were still working to stabilize and operating an unproven remote gun system in combat for the first time.

How Did the B-29 End the War in the Pacific?

The Pacific demanded something Europe didn’t. Distances ran to thousands of miles, not hundreds. No medium bomber could reach Japan from any island the Allies held in 1943. The B-29 was the only aircraft that could do the job.

The Twentieth Air Force began B-29 missions from the Mariana Islands in late 1944. The firebombing campaign of March 1945, directed by General Curtis LeMay, ranked among the most destructive events of the entire war. Tokyo burned across 16 square miles in a single night. Missions ran 12 hours or longer, flown by crews who were mostly in their early twenties.

On September 2, 1945, a formation of B-29s flew over Tokyo Bay as the surrender documents were signed aboard the USS Missouri. By the time the war ended, Boeing and its contractors had built 3,898 Superfortresses.

What Happened to the B-29s After the War?

The need for them ended almost overnight. A few were retained for early Cold War strategic operations. A few were converted for weather reconnaissance. Most were scrapped.

Twelve B-29s ended up on the flats at China Lake, California - a Navy test and weapons development installation in the Mojave Desert. The Navy used them for gunnery target practice and drone operations into the early 1960s, then left them where they sat.

The extreme heat and dry alkaline air of the Mojave actually preserved them better than any humid climate would have. They deteriorated, but slowly.

In 1971, the B-29 Association pulled one of the China Lake aircraft - named FIFI - and returned her to airworthy condition with the Commemorative Air Force. For decades, if you saw a B-29 flying anywhere, you saw FIFI. The other eleven remained in the desert.

Who Found Doc the B-29 at China Lake?

Tony Mazzolini was from Wichita, Kansas - a detail that matters. Boeing’s Wichita plant was one of the primary B-29 production facilities during the war. Tens of thousands of workers built these aircraft there. An entire civic identity organized around it.

In the summer of 1987, Mazzolini drove to China Lake and walked among the eleven remaining airframes in the desert heat. He found the one he was looking for in what base personnel called the bone yard.

Tail number 44-69563. Built at the Boeing Wichita plant in 1944. Named Doc by her original ground crew, following the B-29 unit tradition of naming aircraft after Snow White’s seven dwarfs. She had sat at China Lake for close to 30 years when Mazzolini stood in front of her.

He made his decision in the desert heat: she was going back to Wichita, and she was going to fly again.

How Did Mazzolini Secure Doc’s Release From the Navy?

Getting a military branch to release a historic aircraft from a restricted installation requires years of sustained effort. Mazzolini spent 11 years on it - letters, meetings, coalition-building. The central argument was straightforward: these aircraft were national heritage resources sitting behind restricted fencing where no one could access them. They belonged in the hands of people who would restore and preserve them.

The Navy released Doc in 1998 - eleven years after Mazzolini first found her. Then the real work began.

What Did Restoring a B-29 Actually Require?

Doc’s Hangar, as the restoration organization became known, set up operations in Wichita. The scope of restoring a B-29 is genuinely difficult to compress.

The airframe inspection alone took years. The B-29 has roughly one million rivets. Every skin panel, every structural member, every section of fuselage, wing, and engine nacelle had to be evaluated - what was serviceable, what needed replacement, what needed to be fabricated from scratch because the original parts hadn’t been manufactured since 1947.

The four R-3350 Duplex Cyclone engines - each a 28-cylinder, four-row radial - were their own project within the project. These engines also powered postwar commercial airliners like the Lockheed Constellation and Douglas DC-7, but by the 2000s the supply of rebuildable cores was genuinely scarce. Finding four that could be returned to airworthy condition required a worldwide search spanning years.

The fuel system, hydraulics, pressurization, and electrical system each demanded full restoration. The analog fire control computers from 1943 had to be returned to mechanical functionality before the airframe could be certified.

What Role Did Wartime Veterans Play in the Restoration?

Word spread early through B-29 Association and old Boeing networks in Wichita. Men who had built these aircraft new - in 1944 and 1945 - began appearing at the hangar. Retired Boeing engineers in their seventies and eighties. Retired mechanics. Some brought original documentation they had kept for 50 years: drawings, service notes, photographs.

They explained why Boeing made specific design decisions, identified the sequences that mattered, and flagged the things that looked correct but created problems downstream. That kind of knowledge cannot be recovered from any manual.

The project caught it just in time. Another decade and those men would not have been there to ask.

How Many People Volunteered to Restore Doc?

The volunteer base grew steadily across years of restoration. Professionals and amateurs. People who drove from other states for a weekend with a wrench. Aviation clubs that showed up with their own toolkits. Individuals who contributed what they could because they wanted to be part of it. Corporate donors who funded specific systems.

When Doc’s Hangar tallied the final count, the total came to over 300,000 volunteer hours - roughly 144 years of continuous work, contributed entirely by people who chose to give their time to one airplane.

What Was It Like When Doc Flew Again?

On July 17, 2016, Doc lifted off from Wichita. The crowd included families, veterans, aviation enthusiasts who had flown in specifically for the day, and the volunteers who had spent years getting there.

Four R-3350 engines on a still Kansas morning are a physical experience - felt in the chest, not just heard - accompanied by a specific smell of oil and exhaust that belongs to no other engine. One of them is something. Four together is a wall of sound that stays with you.

The first flight lasted approximately an hour and a half. The test crew reported systems nominal across the board. The landing was clean.

Tony Mazzolini watched from the ramp. He had found her 29 years earlier and had not flown as crew. Asked what the moment felt like, he said she was always going to fly again. They just had to do the work.

Where Can You See a Flying B-29 Today?

Both Doc and FIFI are currently airworthy - the only two flying B-29s in the world out of 3,898 built. Both appear at airshows across the country. Rides are available on Doc through Doc’s Hangar, which continues to operate out of Wichita.

The difference between a static museum display and a flying warbird is not something a photograph conveys. The sound, the vibration, the smell - the sense that the connection to what this aircraft did is not merely documented, but alive, and that it still does the thing it was built to do.

Key Takeaways

• The B-29 Superfortress was the most technically complex aircraft ever mass-produced, featuring pressurized crew compartments, remote-operated gun turrets, and analog fire control computers that were revolutionary for 1943.
• Twelve B-29s ended up at China Lake, California after the war; FIFI was recovered in 1971, and Doc remained in the desert until 1998.
• Tony Mazzolini found Doc in the summer of 1987 and spent 11 years securing her release from the Navy before restoration could begin.
• Over 300,000 volunteer hours - including direct guidance from original Boeing engineers and mechanics who had built the aircraft in 1944–45 - went into Doc’s restoration.
• Doc flew again on July 17, 2016, from Wichita, 29 years after Mazzolini found her and 71 years after the type’s operational peak over the Pacific.