B-29 Superfortress: 80th Anniversary

Among the most technologically challenging combat aircraft ever created, Boeing’s B-29 Superfortress proved devastatingly effective in combat. Gaining infamy for the nuclear attacks on Japan that ended World War Two, it returned to action in the skies over Korea.

It also served briefly with the RAF as the Washington, and much longer in the USSR and China, as the reverse-engineered Tupolev Tu-4 Bull. Post-war the B-29 helped pioneer jet-age advances, including inflight refuelling, and spawed the B-50 bomber and C/KC-97 airlifters and tankers.

Today, the B-29’s engineering legacy lives on through the Stratocruiser and pioneering Dash-80, through the 707, 727 and 757, to the latest Boeing 737 MAX.