Some accompanying aircraft have been replaced during the six-week tour but all of them help raise public awareness of vintage aircraft restoration and operation efforts, warbird museums and provide a physical link to veterans who flew or supported aviation operations during the Second World War and during the period since that global conflict. The tour also allows members of the public to experience most of the aircraft in their element during local flights while helping to fund their continuing operation.
The B-29 will return to its home in Texas in early April and is scheduled to embark on a tour of Arizona, California and Washington in mid-May.
(above) A welcome visitor to Orlando Executive AP was
Douglas EA-1E Skyraider N65164 from the Cavanaugh Flight Museum at Addison,
Texas. A stalwart single-seat attack type
during the Korean War and Vietnam War, the big Skyraider was further developed
to carry out a multitude of roles. The A-1E,
known to US Navy and Marine Corps aircrew before 1962 as the AD-5, was a
multiplace version used in the attack role and as a platform for electronic
warfare and airborne early warning work.
(above) This very nice North American AT-6D Texan was
also on the ramp. N36 is associated with
the Commemorative Air Force through its pilot, Colonel Tom Malone. Orlando Executive is no stranger to T-6s as
it was a major Army Air Forces base during World War II with at least a few
Texans flown by its support squadron.
(above) The CAF’s Curtiss SB2C-5 Helldiver is seen
taxiing in following a local flight. The
only airworthy example in the world, N92879 represents a design which had, by
the end of the Second World War,
become the standard Navy scout-bomber.
Although early versions suffered from design, performance and handling
flaws, the bugs were worked out on later variants. However, the SB2C’s reputation continues to
suffer at the hands of authors today.
(above) One of the unsung support types of the Second
World War and two decades which followed was the Beechcraft C-45 Expeditor. The type served in the training, light
transport and photo-reconnaissance roles with the US Army Air Forces, US Navy and
Allied air arms during WWII and in the postwar years. This CAF aircraft, N70GA, is a postwar
civilian D18S and is painted in the wartime camouflage and yellow markings
applied to Royal Air Force training and support aircraft. The black/white identification stripes were
applied to all Allied aircraft operating in the United Kingdom when Operation Overlord – the invasion to liberate
Europe – began on 6 June 1944.
(above) The star
of the tour for most is Boeing B-29A Superfortress FIFI. The B-29 was the
ultimate AAF heavy bomber of the Second World War and is synonymous with the
strategic bombing campaign against the Japanese Home Islands during the last
year of the war. The final blow was delivered
by two B-29s – Enola Gay and Bockscar – which dropped a single atomic
bomb each on targets in Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively in August 1945 to
bring WWII to an end. A few of the many
who turned out on 23 March are seen waiting for a chance to look around inside
N529B.
(above) Complex for its time, the B-29 still requires
a good amount of ongoing maintenance over 70 years later. In this view, FIFI gets a little attention around No. 1 engine following a local
flight.
