Originally posted by Odee
Hey... Call me sentimental. The lady was in three wars. The B-29 barely made one.
WWII, Korea, The Cold War - 3
The B-29 was such an impressive weapon the Commies had to steal it... Copied it rivet for rivet under death threats from Stalin himself. (See Tu-4 NATO appropriately named "Bull") It stayed in Soviet service until the 1960's The Chinese are STILL using 10 to 20 of them TODAY!
Research that the B-29 participated in, the X-series planes and their offspring has had long reaching effect. We went into space thanks to some of the experiments that took place in B-29's. They became Guppy type cargo aircraft, passenger liners, Tankers... You name it, soooooooo many variants... that airframe served us a VERY long time!
Their use in The Cold War, yes even as target drones made it possible for us to perfect weapons and tactics we use today. It is not unreasonable to argue that the B-29 use during this time period is still serving us today.
To TRY to imply this was an unimportant aircraft has me scratching my head... Sure I am all for an A-26 / B-26 I say the more planes the better! (That's one reason I love the Il2 Series Games!)
*Steps down from soapbox*