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Weather and mechanical problems prevented any aircraft from coming to the Commemorative Air Force Fly-in at the Pratt Regional Airport.
Several local residents attended the event, as did several members of the CAF including former World War II B-29 Pilot 1st Lt. Chuck Chauncey who flew 35 combat missions during the war.
His plane was named “Goin’ Jessie” which was plane lingo for a plane that could go fast. Chauncey, who is 88, trained with his crew at McCook, Neb. and his B-29 was plane No. 704 off the assembly line in Wichita. His crew picked up the plane at Herington.
Chauncey, who is 88, flew all but two of those missions over Japan and most of them were night missions when he couldn’t actually see the other planes in the mission.
Based out of Tinian, the same island where the Enola Gay left to drop the atom bomb on Hiroshima, Chauncey was some 1,500 miles from Japan and his missions ranged from 14.5 hours to 17 hours and 20 minutes, Chauncey said.
About 99 percent of his missions were just flying over the Pacific Ocean.
At first the planes were flying at 30,000 feet and they were lucky to get 20 to 25 percent of their bombs on their targets, Chauncey said.
The B-29s were the first combat aircraft to be pressurized so they could fly higher. During these flights the pilots discovered the jet stream that moved at 200 to 250 mph. When the bombs went through the jet stream it would blow them off course even with the help of the Norden Bombsight and that was not a good percentage for the $3 billion B-29 project.
“Washington was screaming,” Chauncey said.
Army Air Corp Gen. Curtis LaMay, who had experience with incendiary bombing raids in Europe, was brought in to evaluate the problem. He changed the flight level to 5,000 to 10,000 feet and made them night missions usually striking their targets between midnight and 2 a.m.
Pilots could not see the other planes during night flight except for the blue exhaust flame from the four engines so each plane was basically on its one during the mission, Chauncey said.
LaMay ordered a four-site, 11-day blitz over Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe. Chauncey took part in the three of the four blitz operations including the one over Tokyo that was the deadliest burning about 16 square miles of the city and killed about 250,000 people.
An additional 22 square miles were destroyed in a later mission.
Weather and mechanical problems prevented any aircraft from coming to the Commemorative Air Force Fly-in at the Pratt Regional Airport.
Several local residents attended the event, as did several members of the CAF including former World War II B-29 Pilot 1st Lt. Chuck Chauncey who flew 35 combat missions during the war.
His plane was named “Goin’ Jessie” which was plane lingo for a plane that could go fast. Chauncey, who is 88, trained with his crew at McCook, Neb. and his B-29 was plane No. 704 off the assembly line in Wichita. His crew picked up the plane at Herington.
Chauncey, who is 88, flew all but two of those missions over Japan and most of them were night missions when he couldn’t actually see the other planes in the mission.
Based out of Tinian, the same island where the Enola Gay left to drop the atom bomb on Hiroshima, Chauncey was some 1,500 miles from Japan and his missions ranged from 14.5 hours to 17 hours and 20 minutes, Chauncey said.
About 99 percent of his missions were just flying over the Pacific Ocean.
At first the planes were flying at 30,000 feet and they were lucky to get 20 to 25 percent of their bombs on their targets, Chauncey said.
The B-29s were the first combat aircraft to be pressurized so they could fly higher. During these flights the pilots discovered the jet stream that moved at 200 to 250 mph. When the bombs went through the jet stream it would blow them off course even with the help of the Norden Bombsight and that was not a good percentage for the $3 billion B-29 project.
“Washington was screaming,” Chauncey said.
Army Air Corp Gen. Curtis LaMay, who had experience with incendiary bombing raids in Europe, was brought in to evaluate the problem. He changed the flight level to 5,000 to 10,000 feet and made them night missions usually striking their targets between midnight and 2 a.m.
Pilots could not see the other planes during night flight except for the blue exhaust flame from the four engines so each plane was basically on its one during the mission, Chauncey said.
LaMay ordered a four-site, 11-day blitz over Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe. Chauncey took part in the three of the four blitz operations including the one over Tokyo that was the deadliest burning about 16 square miles of the city and killed about 250,000 people.
An additional 22 square miles were destroyed in a later mission.
A total of 32 square miles was destroyed among the four cities. The raid was so effective that by wars end over 70 cities had been firebombed.
The firestorms caused by the bombings created tremendous up drafts and down drafts. Air speed within the up drafts could hit 160 mph while down drafts could reach 330 mph. Planes flying out of up draft to down draft were reported to flip over upside down.
At first planes coming back from flying through the drafts these were coming apart but it turned out to be lose bolts coming out of the plane and not the force of the drafts, Chauncey.
Besides bombing, the B-29s were also used for mining harbors and bays with 1,000 and 2,000 pound bombs. The combination of mining and submarine operations was so effective it cut supply ships by 80 percent.
The mines were fairly sophisticated. They could be set to explode a specific ship in a line of ships.
Although he never trained at Pratt, Chauncey enjoyed his visit to the former Pratt Army Air Field and it reminded him of his training California, Texas and Nebraska.
The B-29s were the first bombers to have remote controlled computer operated bombsights.
His plane lost an engine on its way from San Francisco to Hawaii as he headed to Tinian but he was carrying an extra engine for replacement parts so crews were able to install the engine and continue on.
During one mission the plane lost the head off an engine valve on the way to the target. The crew to a man voted to continue the mission.
“All the crew said ‘Let’s go. Let’s go,’” Chauncey said. “Now that’s brave men.”
They completed their mission and made it back to Tinian on three engines.
The Goin’ Jessie was never hit and never lost a crew member even though crew members reported seeing small arms fire going between the engines.
Chauncey was an airplane commander and so was the other pilot John Flemming.
Chauncey recently piloted Fifi, the only flying B-29 left in the world. He noticed he had to hold onto the wheel with both hands where he used to fly with just one hand.
