S is for Superfortress

There was a spoken pecking order on any flightline…but that pecking order was even more exaggerated in a war zone. Everyone knew that the top dogs were the fighter planes with the sabers and other jets sitting comfortably on top. When on the ground, the fighters insisted on being the center of attention. They were the aircraft that were always fueled up first and often were given the luxury of sleeping in a heated hangar. From the other plane's perspective, they were also absolute mothers of slag whose speed and agility were only outclassed by their ego and arrogance. These small aircrafts' attitudes were tolerated because everyone knew that they might need the fighters to clear a line for them to finish a mission, but that didn't mean that they had to like doing it.

After the fighters came the recon aircraft, these specialized planes came in all sorts of shapes and sizes but they all had something in common…they were closed mouth as slag. Occasionally you might see one actually talk if you snuck on one a gaggle of them quiet enough, but it tended to cause them to bolt in a panic once they noticed how close you managed to get to them. On some level, this made sense, these aircraft were basically spying on the enemy…but honestly, it was possible to talk about something other than work so their refusal to utter anything longer than a three-word sentence to only outside of their inner circle was rather ridiculous.

Down from the recon planes were the VIP and medical transports. The VIP aircraft were that high on the pecking order due to the people they transported than their own personal status. The medical planes, well, most of them were female, and it never hurt to treat a lady was a bit extra care, especially if they might end up helping to treat your injuries later. After the specialized transport, then came the heavy bombers, followed by the medium and light bombers. Then the general transport and then finally, at the very bottom of the heap was cargo with combat cargo sitting rock bottom.

For planes like Cabbie, it was rather demoralizing being last in line for everything after spending a full day getting your belly shot up by the enemy over the rolling mountains of Korea. The C-119s and other combat cargo models knew that they were always going to be sleeping on the gravel airstrip aprons regardless of just how bad the weather got and how hard the icy wind screamed. They also knew that the holes in their skin would often go untreated for days, if not weeks, as they waited for an overworked mechanic to have enough time and supplies to treat them.

The pecking order made the Flying Boxcars' lives a miserable existence…but every once in a while, they were handed a glimmer of an existence outside of the horrific reality of war. And those glimmers gave them all hope that things would be better once this war was fought and finished.

One of the places that Cabbie's unit experienced this hope was when they were sent back to Japan for rest, recreation, and repair leave. During these leaves, they often shared a base with a whole host of other aircraft units…but when they got really lucky, they shared an apron with a unit of B-29 Superfortresses.

While a Superfortress technically should have only existed halfway down the pecking order, their sheer size and combat experience made even the jets give them a wide berth. No one wanted to make enemies with the only class of aircraft that had single-handedly managed to bring Japan to its knees by dropping a pair of nuclear weapons. They were also massive, with a wingspan only second to the gigantic Globemasters. The bombers also had something very particular in common with the Flying Boxcars. Both models shared the same engine type and that had to count for something.

So, when the Flying Boxcars and Superfortresses were lucky enough to end up on the same runway, the always seemed to gravitate toward each other. The Superfortresses because had a deep seeded need to care for the smaller planes that they viewed as kin and the Flying Boxcars because they desperately needed to be nurtured and cared for. And if you were really lucky you might even spot the smaller planes sheltering under the wide expanse of the larger aircraft's wings, listening to the bombers' tales from the Big One and telling their own stories of what it was like to fly combat cargo on the front lines of a war the rest of the world didn't understand.

Boeing B-29 Superfortress: The B-29 Superfortress was designed as a high-altitude strategic bomber that was introduced midway through of WWII. When it entered the fight, it was discovered that the aircraft was far more versatile then expected and could be used for low-altitude incendiary bombing and aerial placement of naval mines. Because if this aircraft's legs and payload capacity it was selected to be the airframe to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, making it the only vehicle to deliver a nuclear weapon in combat.

While the Superfortress had a relatively short production window (from 1943 to 1946), 3,970 of them were built. This airframe fought in two wars (WWII and Korea). While this aircraft has played a very important role in aviation history, only twenty-two of these airframes can still be found, two of which still can fly (Doc and Fifi, both of which I have had the pleasure of meeting in person). If you want to see one of these airframes, is to visit one of the major military aerospace museums in the US. However, you can get lucky and spot the aircraft on static display at the Imperial War Museum in Doxford, England or one at the KAI Aerospace Museum in Sachon, South Korea.