Aero Vintage Books

I'm sure we've all heard of Kee Bird, a sad story of why we don't have three flying B-29s. Despite the loss of the majority of her airframe, there are still wings, engines, etc... And I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to get the remaining airframe fragments registered with the FAA if they aren't already. So, what's stopping a rebuild, besides money? To be clear, I'm just curious about this, and why the remainder of the airframe was never recovered after the fire.

Money, logistics and the complexity of a B-29 in general; same reason the airframes at Aero Trader have never sold and Kermit Weeks' Fertile Myrtle rests in pieces. Doc's restoration was a huge operation, decades in the making, and they started with a largely intact airframe from a dry climate.

FoCoB17G wrote:I'm sure we've all heard of Kee Bird, a sad story of why we don't have three flying B-29s. Despite the loss of the majority of her airframe, there are still wings, engines, etc... And I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to get the remaining airframe fragments registered with the FAA if they aren't already. So, what's stopping a rebuild, besides money? To be clear, I'm just curious about this, and why the remainder of the airframe was never recovered after the fire.

Probably much the same reason why it sat there for the first 50 years. If you have some time, google map the area where Kee Bird lies. its REMOTE. B-29 components are BIG... and retrieving them would be a huge multimillion dollar ordeal. Again, same reasons why no-one ever went and got the five other p-38s, the b-17s, or the numerous other wrecks that lie up north. If it was easy, cheap, or fast, it would have been done already.

win the lottery and recover the several dozen known warbirds in Greenland (at least 6 known B-17), P-38, P-40's etc, etc....

Thanks for explaining it to me!