Whirlwind - Barrett Tillman [17]
After the Doolittle Raid, and after Haynes and Halpro faltered, the next proposal arose within China itself. In July 1942, shortly after disbanding the AVG, Chennault informed Army Air Forces chief Hap Arnold of the desire to increase the new China Air Task Force to forty-two bombers and 105 fighters supported by sixty-seven transport aircraft. Chennault claimed that with such an assembly he could drive the Japanese air force from China skies, paralyze enemy rail and river traffic in China, and bomb the home islands. Furthermore, with 100 P-47 Thunderbolt fighters and thirty B-25 Mitchell bombers, he pledged to destroy “Japanese aircraft production facilities.”
Nor was that all. Three months later Chennault assured Roosevelt that with 105 of the latest fighters and forty bombers (including a dozen B-17s or B-24s) he would “accomplish the downfall of Japan . . . probably within six months, within one year at the outside.” He added, “I will guarantee to destroy the principal production centers of Japan.”
That a professional airman like Chennault truly believed such puffery is hard to accept. Among other things, he knew from experience that the Japanese had failed to destroy Chinese cities with far larger forces over a period of years. But however his grandiose claims were received in Washington, he remained the U.S. air commander in China for the rest of the war.
Subsequently it took hundreds of B-29 Superfortresses fourteen months to realize Claire Chennault’s fantasy. In fact, when Chennault wrote Arnold that summer of 1942 the Superfortress was not yet a reality.
A Very Heavy Bomber
If any individual invented the B-29, it was Captain Donald Leander Putt. Virtually unknown today, the native Ohioan won his wings in 1929 and achieved a superior reputation as a test pilot and aeronautical engineer. Having helped develop the B-24, he was chief of the Army Air Corps Experimental Aircraft Bombardment Branch at Wright Field, Ohio, when he was brought into the next project in 1939.
The new design was to fly twice as far as the B-17 with a greater payload, hence the designation “very heavy bomber.” Putt looked at what was technically feasible and produced the initial concept: a range of over 5,300 miles and a top speed of 400 mph. With Britain facing the threat of Nazi invasion in 1940, an aircraft possessing such performance appeared increasingly desirable: it might reach Germany in the absence of bases in the United Kingdom.
Actually, Boeing already had a design in mind. So confident was the firm’s management that Boeing began drafting the super-bomber before government funds had been allocated. In fact, the May 1941 contract for 250 B-29s was doubled immediately after Pearl Harbor. However, the need was so pressing that the Army took the almost unprecedented step of approving volume production before the aircraft was test-flown. Boeing had orders for 1,644 B-29s before the first flight in September 1942.
Even allowing for the prewar one-off XB-15 and XB-19 (see Chapter One), there had never been anything quite like the B-29. Its size alone generated awe: a 141-foot wingspan, ninety-nine-foot length, and a towering tail reaching nearly thirty feet off the ground. Though it didn’t fully match Donald Putt’s vision, no other bomber equaled its 390 mph top speed and 3,200-mile combat range. More than an evolutionary step up from the B-17, the Superfortress combined several new technologies or features in one streamlined silvery shape. Unlike the B-17, the B-29 was fully flush-riveted, enhancing its speed and range. Pressurized crew spaces and remote-controlled gun turrets were even more significant features. The Superfortress boasted four remote-controlled turrets (two upper, two lower) and a manually operated tail position. Three turrets each mounted two .50 caliber machine guns while the top forward turret housed four. The central fire control (CFC) gunner and two waist gunners directed the turrets as needed, though the bombardier could control both forward turrets. The tail position originally contained two