Doc the B-twenty-nine Superfortress and the sixty-year resurrection from a weapons range in the Mojave Desert

Only two B-29 Superfortresses still fly today. One of them, known as Doc, spent decades as a weapons target in the Mojave Desert before a volunteer-driven restoration effort returned her to the skies in July 2016. Her story is one of the most ambitious warbird recoveries ever completed.

From the Assembly Line to the Desert

Doc rolled off the Boeing assembly line in Wichita, Kansas, in 1944, carrying serial number 44-61975, designated a B-29-45-BW. Built to end the war in the Pacific, she never saw combat. The war ended before she deployed.

The Army Air Forces put her to work in support roles — radar calibration and various military tasks — until she was eventually transferred to the Naval Weapons Center at China Lake, California. There, the Navy used surplus B-29s as targets for weapons testing. Missiles, rockets, and ordnance tore apart the old bombers one by one. Doc sat on that hardpan for decades, sandblasted by wind and bleached by sun. Most people who saw her wrote her off as scrap.

Tony Mazzolini’s Impossible Idea

In 1987, aviation enthusiast Tony Mazzolini flew over China Lake and spotted several B-29s on the range. He identified one airframe — the future Doc — as a viable restoration candidate. She’d been spared the worst of the weapons testing. Her engines, propellers, and most of her interior were gone, and corrosion was everywhere, but the basic structure remained intact.

Getting the aircraft released from an active military weapons range proved almost as difficult as restoring it. Eleven years of paperwork, negotiations, and bureaucratic persistence passed before Doc was finally trucked off the range in 1998 and moved to a hangar in Wichita — the same city where Boeing had built her during the war.

A Restoration Measured in Decades

The scope of work was staggering. The airplane was taken apart down to bare metal. Control surfaces were gone or destroyed. Flight deck instruments were missing or corroded beyond use. The pressurization system — revolutionary technology in 1944 — required a complete rebuild. The remote-controlled gun turret system had to be sourced from parts scattered across the country.

The engines posed the greatest challenge. The Wright R-3350 Duplex Cyclone — an 18-cylinder, 2,200-horsepower radial — was notoriously temperamental even when new. Finding four in rebuildable condition meant scrounging from museums, private collectors, and obscure military surplus channels. Each engine required a complete teardown, inspection, and rebuild: every cylinder, every valve, every pushrod.

The airframe needed thousands of square feet of new aluminum skin — aircraft-grade 2024 aluminum, formed to match the compound curves of a 1940s bomber. Some original Boeing tooling still existed, but much of the metalwork was shaped by hand over English wheels and planishing hammers. Wing spar inspections alone took months, using dye penetrant and eddy current testing to check every inch of the structural backbone that carries the loads of four engines and thousands of gallons of fuel.

The fuel system was its own ordeal. The B-29 carried over 9,000 gallons of aviation fuel in self-sealing tanks spread through the wings and fuselage. Every tank had to be restored or replaced. Every line had to be pressure-tested. The instrument panel was rebuilt with original gauges sourced from collectors worldwide. The autopilot — one of the first truly effective systems installed in a bomber — was restored to working condition.

The Volunteers Who Made It Happen

The restoration group, known as Doc’s Friends, ran almost entirely on volunteer labor. Retirees, mechanics, engineers, and high school students learning sheet metal work for the first time rotated through the hangar at the old Boeing plant. At its peak, hundreds of volunteers contributed their time. Some gave weekends. Some gave years.

Among them were men and women who had built B-29s on the Wichita production line during World War II. The same hands that riveted the bomber together in 1944 came back to do it again. One volunteer in his eighties, a former production line worker, said he could still feel the rhythm of the rivet guns from 1944 in his hands.

The project weathered serious setbacks. Funding dried up more than once. The project had to change locations. Key volunteers fell ill or passed away before seeing the airplane fly. But each time the effort stalled, someone stepped up — a donation, a new volunteer with the right skills, a parts source appearing out of nowhere.

FAA Certification and the Road to Flight

The FAA process was its own challenge. Doc was no longer a certified production aircraft. She was a one-off restoration with no type certificate support from the manufacturer. Every modification, repair, and replacement part required documentation and approval. The paperwork filled cabinets.

A B-29 Superfortress spans 99 feet in length with a 141-foot wingspan and an empty weight of approximately 74,500 pounds — 37 tons before fuel. Every system on that airplane had to function before the FAA would issue an airworthiness certificate.

Doc Takes to the Sky

In 2016, after nearly two decades of restoration, Doc was ready for engine runs. On a summer day in Wichita, with hundreds of volunteers watching from the ramp, the four Wright Cyclones fired to life one by one — a combined 8,800 horsepower shaking the ground.

On July 17, 2016, Doc flew for the first time in sixty years, lifting off from McConnell Air Force Base — the same ground where Boeing had tested her in 1944. The pilot reported she handled beautifully: responsive, solid, like a new airplane.

Where Doc Flies Today

Doc is now based at her own hangar and museum at Eisenhower National Airport in Wichita. She makes air show appearances and heritage flights across the country and has flown formation with Fifi, the Commemorative Air Force’s B-29 — giving crowds the rare sight of two flying B-29 Superfortresses together, something most aviation historians never expected to see again.

Key Takeaways

• Doc is one of only two airworthy B-29 Superfortresses in the world, restored from a desert weapons range hulk to flying condition over nearly 20 years.
• Tony Mazzolini spotted the airframe in 1987 and spent 11 years securing its release from China Lake before restoration began in Wichita.
• The volunteer-driven restoration involved hundreds of contributors, including WWII-era Boeing workers who had built B-29s on the original production line.
• Four Wright R-3350 engines had to be sourced and completely rebuilt, along with thousands of square feet of aluminum skin, all aircraft systems, and original instruments.
• Doc flew again on July 17, 2016, and continues to make air show and heritage flight appearances from her home base in Wichita, Kansas.