421st ARS Boeing YKB-29T-90-BW Superfortress 1954

The Boeing KB-29 was a modified

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

B-29 Superfortress for air refueling needs by the

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

. Two primary versions were developed and produced: KB-29M and KB-29P. The 509th and 43d Air Refueling Squadrons ( Walker AFB, NM and Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ respectively) were created in 1948 to operate the KB-29M tankers. The 303d Bombardment Wing at Davis-Monthan AFB flew B-29s and KB-29s from 1951 to 1953 that provided training for strategic bombardment and air refueling operations to meet SAC's global commitments.Strategic-Air-Command.com's 303d BW
Davis-Monthan AFB Deployed at

Sidi Slimane AB Sidi Slimane Air Base was a military air base in Sidi Slimane, Morocco, Sidi Slimane, a city in the Rabat-Salé-Kénitra regions of Morocco, region in Morocco. It is also known as the Fifth Royal Air Force Base, operated by the Royal Moroccan Air ...

, French Morocco, 5 Oct – 6 November 1952.

Variants

KB-29M

: ''Section source: Baugher and National'' The B-29 played an important role in developing the effective use of aerial refueling during the late 1940s. The first aircraft involved in this programme were the KB-29M tanker and B-29MR receiver. At first, a grappling system, known as the looped hose method, was used; the tanker would enter formation flight behind, above and to the left of the receiver. It would then unreel a hauling cable attached to a weight to make it dangle near vertically. The receiver would trail a hauling cable ending in a drag cone (to make this trail near horizontally) and a grapnel. With both cables trailed, the tanker would cross to the right of the receiver so the two cables snagged each other. With cables snagged, the tanker hauled both into its fuselage where the receiver's cable was connected to the tanker's hose. This was then hauled into the receiver. After connecting with internal fuel compartments pumping would begin. When the receiver was full the process was reversed allowing the tanker to recover its hose and the receiver its hauling cable. While this system was clumsy, it was often used in the late 1940s before a better system was developed. It was most notably used to refuel the '' Lucky Lady II'' during her famous circumnavigation of the globe in 1949. This helped sway the argument as to whether the USAF or US Navy should provide the US's nuclear delivery capability. The USAF won with the consequential massive expansion of the USAF's Strategic Air Command and cancellation of the US Navy's super carriers. The looped hose method was only of use with large multi-crew planes since crew members were required to assist in the hauling in. A modified method known as the probe and drogue system was developed to allow single seat aircraft to be refuelled in the air. With jet fighters suffering from short range there was a need for these to be refuelled in the air and several KB-29Ms were modified to use ' probe-and-drogue' systems, in which the refueling hose has a torus-shaped ''para-drogue'' attached to the end, and the receiving aircraft has a probe on its nose or wing, which the pilot manoeuvers into the drogue to link the hose. One KB-29M, redesignated YKB-29T, was modified to have another two refueling hoses on its wingtip. It served as the prototype for the KB-50D. The refuelling systems were developed and installed by Flight Refuelling Ltd, at Tarrant Rushton in the United Kingdom.

KB-29P

: ''Section source: Baugher and NationalNational Museum Fact Sheet on KB-29P variant
Official Site'' 420th Air Refueling Squadron Bell-Atlanta KB-29P-45-BA Superfortress 44-83906

In an effort to improve on the probe-and-drogue system, Boeing developed a rigid flying boom system, which was first used on the KB-29P. The boom was mounted on the aftmost end of the KB-29P, and used a V-tail-like set of control surfaces for stabilization at its far end. With the V-tail-style surfaces, still used on most USAF tanker aircraft in the 21st century, the boom could be manoeuvered by the operator. The flying boom system was selected by SAC as the preferred method for refuelling their bombers and, because of the massive size attained by SAC, it became the most common method for in-flight refueling in the USAF and was used on KC-97s and also on modern tankers such as the

KC-135 Stratotanker The Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker is an American military aerial refueling tanker aircraft that was developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype, alongside the Boeing 707 airliner. It has a narrower fuselage and is shorter than the 707. Boeing gave ...

, the KC-10 Extender, and the KC-46 Pegasus. The KB-29P was operated by 420th Air Refueling Squadron based at RAF Sculthorpe

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

during the mid-1950s. From 1954 to 1957, the 407th Air Refueling Squadron was based at Great Falls Air Force Base. Later the base name was changed to Malmstrom Air Force Base.

Specifications (KB-29P)

References

External links