Doc the B-twenty-nine Superfortress and the sixteen-year resurrection in a Wichita hangar

B-29 Superfortress serial number 44-61675, known as “Doc,” spent nearly 30 years decaying in the Mojave Desert before a retired airline professional spotted her in 1987. What followed was one of the most ambitious warbird restorations ever attempted — a 16-year volunteer-driven effort in Wichita, Kansas, that returned one of only two flying B-29s to the sky on July 17, 2016.

How Did Doc End Up in the Desert?

Doc rolled off the Boeing production line in Wichita in 1944, one of the last Superfortresses built before the war ended. She never saw combat. After rotating through various stateside assignments, she was transferred to China Lake Naval Weapons Station in California’s Mojave Desert, where the Navy used her as a ground target for radar tracking exercises. No one shot at her — they simply pointed instruments in her direction — but no one maintained her either. By the late 1950s, she was abandoned on the hardpan, left to three decades of wind, sand, and ultraviolet punishment.

In 1987, Tony Mazzolini, a retired airline professional, was surveying the edge of China Lake when he spotted the airframe. Where most people saw scrap aluminum, Mazzolini saw a flyable airplane. His vision was specific: get the B-29 back to Wichita — the city where she was born — and restore her to airworthy condition.

Why Did It Take So Long to Even Start the Restoration?

Before a single wrench was turned, more than a decade passed just securing the aircraft’s release from the Navy and arranging transport. The bureaucratic process of cutting through military red tape, coordinating logistics for moving a disassembled bomber across state lines, and convincing skeptics that the project was viable consumed years of effort.

The airframe finally arrived in Wichita in 2000, disassembled into major sections. The wings were detached, the engines were gone, and the fuselage was a hollow shell. The restoration team set her up in a hangar and began what would become one of the longest volunteer aircraft rebuilds in history.

What Made Restoring a B-29 So Difficult?

The B-29 Superfortress was the most complex and most expensive weapons system of World War II. The program’s development costs actually exceeded those of the Manhattan Project. Boeing had designed an aircraft with a pressurized cabin, remote-controlled gun turrets operated by analog fire-control computers, and a wingspan of just over 141 feet. Each of the four Wright R-3350 Duplex Cyclone engines produced 2,200 horsepower from 18 cylinders arranged in two rows — powerful, sophisticated, and notoriously prone to overheating and engine fires during wartime service.

Restoring one meant confronting miles of wiring, hydraulic systems with no available replacement parts, pressurization components, turret mechanisms, and four of the most complicated radial engines ever mass-produced. Original Boeing engineering drawings had to be tracked down from the Smithsonian archives, private collectors, and forgotten filing cabinets in old Boeing storage buildings.

Who Rebuilt Doc?

The restoration was carried out almost entirely by volunteers organized under a nonprofit called Doc’s Friends. The workforce included retired machinists, sheet metal workers, engineers, and aviation enthusiasts who donated their weekends year after year. At peak activity, more than 100 volunteers cycled through the hangar.

Among them were retired Boeing workers who had built B-29s on the original wartime production line. Some were in their seventies and eighties, crawling inside the fuselage with rivet guns, applying skills they hadn’t used in decades. Younger volunteers learned traditional sheet metal techniques directly from these veterans — a living transfer of craftsmanship spanning generations.

What Was the Hardest Part of the Rebuild?

The skin work alone was enormous. Thousands of aluminum panels had to be inspected, and most required replacement. Corrosion had eaten through rivet lines, and desert sand had pitted surfaces beyond salvage. Every replacement panel was formed, fitted, and riveted by hand to match original Boeing wartime specifications.

The engines presented their own challenge. Wright R-3350s cannot be ordered from any supplier. The team sourced engines through military surplus channels and had each one completely torn down and rebuilt by radial engine specialists — new cylinders, bearings, magnetos, and every component subject to wear or corrosion. Each rebuilt engine then had to be mounted on the wing with all oil lines, fuel lines, cowl flap hydraulics, ignition wiring, and instrumentation connected. Four times over.

There were periods, particularly in the mid-2000s, when funding dried up, volunteers aged out, and parts proved impossible to locate. Progress slowed to near-standstill, and observers questioned whether Doc would ever fly. The core team kept working.

When Did Doc Fly Again?

By 2015, Doc was structurally complete — wings, engines, tail surfaces, landing gear, and a period-correct instrument panel all in place. On July 17, 2016, she flew for the first time in more than 60 years.

The maiden flight took place on a Wichita summer morning before a crowd that included volunteers who had worked on the aircraft for 10 to 15 years and former Boeing production workers, some now in their nineties. The four Wright radials came to full takeoff power — a deep, layered sound that resonates through the chest — and Doc climbed into a series of gentle circuits over the Kansas landscape.

Why Does Doc Matter?

Doc is one of only two airworthy B-29 Superfortresses in the world. The other is Fifi, operated by the Commemorative Air Force out of Dallas, which for years carried the sole responsibility of keeping the type visible to the public. With two flying examples, the B-29 community has critical redundancy — when one aircraft is down for maintenance, the other can continue flying the airshow circuit and offering ride experiences.

The B-29 holds unique historical significance. It was the aircraft that ended World War II, flew the Berlin Airlift, and ushered in the era of strategic airpower. Without Mazzolini’s 1987 intervention, only one flying example would exist, and the margin between active remembrance and historical obscurity would be considerably narrower.

Where Is Doc Now?

Doc is based at a purpose-built hangar on Eisenhower National Airport in Wichita (formerly McConnell Air Force Base, which has its own B-29 history). The facility serves as both a maintenance hangar and an education center where visitors can walk up to the aircraft, look into the bomb bay, examine the gun turrets, and see the aluminum skin that volunteers formed by hand.

Doc tours the airshow circuit each summer, and ride flights are available but sell out quickly. The current schedule is posted on the Doc’s Friends website.

Key Takeaways

• Doc (B-29 serial number 44-61675) sat abandoned in the Mojave Desert for nearly 30 years before Tony Mazzolini identified her as restorable in 1987.
• The restoration took 16 years of active work (2000–2016), carried out primarily by over 100 volunteers including retired Boeing workers who built B-29s during WWII.
• The B-29 program cost more to develop than the Manhattan Project, making each airframe extraordinarily complex to restore — from thousands of hand-riveted skin panels to four rebuilt Wright R-3350 engines.
• Doc’s first post-restoration flight occurred on July 17, 2016, making her one of only two flying B-29s worldwide alongside the Commemorative Air Force’s Fifi.
• Doc is now based at a dedicated hangar and education center on Eisenhower National Airport in Wichita, Kansas, and flies the summer airshow circuit annually.