PLEASE let know what you find out.thanks Vet I did not know the Great Artiste was lost in alaska Whiteman Air Force Base is only about 50 miles from me. While the aircraft were switched, the crews were not, so Fred Bock and the crew of Bockscar flew the observer mission in The Great Artiste, and Charles Sweeney and his crew flew the bombing mission in Bockscar. It was scheduled to be the bomber aircraft for the Nagasaki mission, but since it was loaded with scientific equipment used to monitor the Hiroshima attack, it was decided at the last minute to keep The Great Artiste as the observer aircraft, and substitute Bockscar as the bombing aircraft. It was the observer aircraft for the Hiroshima mission. The Great Artiste was the only aircraft to fly both atomic bombing missions over Japan. This B-29 is painted to honor the memory of The Great Artiste. The original Great Artiste was lost in an accident in Alaska many years ago. The B-29 on display at Whiteman is painted in the markings of The Great Artiste.
This base is higher security than most air force bases, so don't even think of trying to get on base for photography unless you have a military connection. The 509th currently operates the USAF fleet of B-2 Spirit stealth bombers. Whiteman is the home of the 509th Bomb Group, the group that dropped the atomic bombs in Japan during WWII. check and see if they still have nose art as well.ī-29 on display at Whiteman Air Force Base near the town of Knob Noster, Missouri. I may be able to forward it on and get them saved. If you have, or can get any contact info PLEASE send it to me. They are of terrible quality, largely due to the near white-out conditions due to all the snow on the ground. The following pictures were taken by me through the cockpit window using a very cheap, but very small camera that I always kept in a leg pocket of my flight suit. That is all it took for us to "amend our orders" and proceed on our own quest to find Kee Bird. The personnel at Thule base operations were unsure of the exact coordinates of the downed Kee Bird, but gave us an approximate location. While we were at Thule we learned of the existence of the crashed B-29. After off loading, we would return to Thule by reversing the route.
From there we would proceed east to Nord. Our planned routing was to depart Thule and fly north to Canadian Forces Station Alert at the far northeastern tip of the North American Continent.
We operated out of Thule AB, Greenland, making two round trip shuttles everyday for two weeks. including the 2 that flew with enola gay on the Hiroshima bomb missionīack in 1969 I was the navigator on a C-141 that was on a two week mission to fly supplies into Nord, a Danish base at the northeastern tip of Greenland. but there are many on static display nation wide. The only operational B-29 I know of is FIFI. In 6 original parts and well worth watching. This episode of NOVA follows his team's efforts to rescue the Kee Bird. After surveying the plane and its location, Greenamyer decided to repair the Kee Bird and fly it back to the United States. Its historical significance and well-preserved condition attracted the attention of Darryl Greenamyer, an experienced salvage pilot. Although nearly 4,000 B-29s were built in the 1940s, by 1994 the Kee Bird was one of only a few such planes left in the world. After crash landing in northern Greenland, the crew was rescued, but the Kee Bird was left behind. In February 1947, a B-29 bomber nicknamed Kee Bird became lost above the Arctic Circle while on a secret Cold War reconnaissance mission.
one man lost his life in the rescue attempt could they repair this piece of history on sight in artic weather and fly it home? part 6 of the vid tells the story. an amazing story of a team of men who attempted to rescue a down B-29 called Kee Bird in the frozen artic north.