Monday 2 January 2017

B-29 Superfortress “Doc” first flight July 2016 - USAF F-4 Phantom final flight, 'Phantom Phinale' Holloman AF base, December 2016


First post of the New Year! FalkeEins 'Jet & Prop' blog starts its ninth year.  This blog now features over 400 separate posts. Approx average daily page views  =500. As a 'google' blog we get listed near the top of most searches. Author/blogger FalkeEins is previously published in UK aviation/modelling magazines and has credits with numerous publishers, including Kagero, Red Kite, Classic Publications, Lela Presse  (publishers of 'Avions' magazine in France) Eagle Editions, Erik Mombeek, Claes Sundin etc. See sidebar for our other blogs and more interesting aviation blogs worldwide.

To kick off 2017 two awesome aviation events from 2016 that we did not get around to covering last year!

B-29 Superfortress “Doc” flew for the first time during July 2016 after being rolled out of a former Boeing Wichita hangar on March 23, 2015, following 15 years and 300,000 hours of restoration work by scores of volunteers. The bomber, built by Boeing in Wichita in 1945, had been parked in the California Mojave desert for 42 years. The aircraft was discovered in 1987 and, in 2000, was trucked to Wichita where restoration began. The project went through a hiatus, the victim of a poor economy and lack of hangar space, when a group of Wichita business leaders and aviation enthusiasts formed a nonprofit group called Doc’s Friends and restarted the restoration. Boeing donated the hangar space. The B-29 is one of only two to be flyable. Securing a permanent home in Wichita for the aircraft and operating the aircraft as a flying museum will probably prove as problematic as the British Vulcan to the Sky project. B-29 Doc organizers estimate it will take another $7 million to $9 million to secure permanent hangar space. Below; some screen captures from the B-29 'Doc' first flight video posted below.










This blog is a big fan of the F-4 Phantom, usually RAF and RN variants! But during 2016 I was fortunate enough to see two Greek F-4s in the air and up close in the static at the RIAT 2016 show in the UK. Elsewhere  the U.S. Air Force F-4 Phantom II made its final flight, after more than 50 years of service, at Holloman Air Force Base on 21 December 2016. Here are some screen captures from one of the best videos of the  'Phantom Phinale' “Pharewell” posted on youtube. A single click to view here. Published by Skyes 9 on youtube in December 2016. " In an attempt at documenting the last USAF F-4 Phantoms in flying service, I flew to Holloman AFB, NM. They'll be used as ground targets from now on as the QF-16 takes over. In this video you will see the start up, taxi out, and flyby of the F-4s, followed by water cannon salute and then shut down of the USAF McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II..."