Wartime’s Big Bird Flies Again : Touring B-29 Aircraft Stirs Memories for Veterans in Air Show Crowd

For the briefest of moments Monday, 50-year-old memories flickered in the mind’s eye of Pete Law as three World War II airplanes touched down in Camarillo.

Instead of standing in the 84-degree heat along a runway at Camarillo Airport, the 74-year-old Law was transported back to his time overseas during World War II, when he served as a flight engineer.

Law, who was assigned to one of the first B-29 bombers pressed into service, remembered that on his first flight the landing gear did not work and the behemoth Superfortress belly-flopped in a Texas cornfield at 190 m.p.h.

“It scared the hell out of me,” recalled Law, who spent three years flying aboard the bomber.

Despite that harrowing experience, the Redondo Beach resident eagerly awaited his turn Monday for a short jaunt above Ventura County aboard the only flying B-29 left of the 3,970 built.

The grin on Law’s face as he anticipated climbing aboard the beast for the first time in almost 50 years was as wide as that of a giddy kindergartner entering Disneyland for the first time.

“I’m all goose-pimply,” he said.

The aircraft, dubbed “Fifi” by the group that restored it, landed about 12:15 p.m. and was greeted by about 500 airplane buffs, veterans and admirers.

“It’s the only one that flies,” said John Kyneur, an Australian tourist and self-described airplane buff vacationing in Ventura. “This is a pretty rare event.”

One other B-29, newly restored at a cost of $1 million, was destroyed last month when it caught fire during its maiden takeoff in Greenland.

To commemorate the end of World War II 50 years ago, “Fifi” will be on display with seven other 1940s-era war birds through Sunday at the airport.

Various other vintage aircraft are also expected to visit the airport this week, said Ed Thomas of the local chapter of the Confederate Air Force. The nonprofit group is responsible for purchasing and maintaining the “flying museum” that is on display at the airport.

The Experimental Aircraft Assn. will also display several of its aircraft this weekend.

But the main attraction is clearly the B-29, which has appeared in the movies “Enola Gay” and “The Right Stuff.” The “Enola Gay,” a B-29, dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945.

On Monday, it served as a reverent piece of the past for the gathered veterans.

“When I got out of the Air Force, I couldn’t even talk about it,” said Dennis Posten of Canyon Country. Posten piloted B-25s during the war and was shot down over the Adriatic Sea. Three crew members died.

“When I saw this plane in Van Nuys [three years ago], it all came back,” he said.

“I spent four years in World War II, and this is as close to one that I’ve ever been,” said veteran John Cowart on Monday. Cowart, a retired Ventura High School business teacher, flew in other planes during his four-year stint during the war, but never the fabled B-29.

“This is wonderful,” he said.

The B-29 was used for target practice in the desert near China Lake for many years before the Confederate Air Force rescued it and restored it to flying condition in 1971.

“It was terrible looking,” said Tom Cloyd, of Midland, Tex., who has piloted the craft almost full time since 1983.

Fake machine guns jut out of the back and bottom of the airplane, and its nose is round and tiled with panes of glass. During wartime, the airplane held 11 crew members. At its most economical speed, the 3,200-pound aircraft burns 400 gallons of gasoline and eight gallons of oil an hour.

The airplane has a wingspan of 141 feet and can carry up to 20,000 pounds of bombs.

“When I saw it, I fell in love with it,” Cloyd said. Shaped like a 99-foot torpedo with wings, the four-propeller craft sounds like a motorboat--albeit a loud and powerful motorboat--as it taxis down the runway.

Aloft, the crew communicates by radio and hand gestures. The buzz of the engines is overwhelming.

“I know that’s why I’m deaf,” said Law, who wears a hearing aid in each ear.