B-29 in lake Mead.....

I was fortunate enough to actually see that B-29 sitting on the ice while I was working
in Thule, Greenland. Caught a hop in a RCAF C-130 involved with operation Boxtop.
The annual resupply of the Canadian Forces base at Alert on the Northern tip of
Ellesmere Island. That was in the summer of 1975.. It was clearly visible from the
air so we circled it a few times before flying on.
Ray

The programme on the B29 in Greenland was called "Treasure of the Humboldt Glacier" The plane was called the KEE bird and the guy who died was called Rick.
HTH
Pete

The only thing I've seen on US forces towing something (other than a glider) any where occured early in WW ll. Seems an NAS Anacosta SBC-4 was somewhere in Ohio (Cleveland I think) when it blew its engine. Rather than ship a new engine to the plane, the parent unit flew a PBY5A to the downed aircraft. They pulled the prop, installed a lifting ring on the prop shaft, hooked a 500 ft cable from the lifting ring to a couple of tie down rings on the PBY and took off. Once in the air, the SBC pilot hand pumped the gear up and both aircraft returned to DC. As both aircraft were painted blue-grey uppers and grey lowers with the red ball still in the stars, believe was early 1942. Trying to locate what publication the pictures were in.

And yes, I whole heartedly agree on the assesment of the History Channel. I'm getting awfully tired of of watching a program and 50% or better of the pictures shown have nothing to do with the subject matter. Kinda like watching old movies, you know the ones I'm talking about. Hero takes off in a J-3, climbs out in a twin Beech, attacks the enemy in an SBD and ends up crashing a C-47 in a ball of fire. Apparently some of the people out there who produce these things think we are as stupid as they are. After all, doesn't the Piper Cub always knock the 747 out of the sky?

I remeber seeing that documentary too!!!!!

I saw that documentary. Very interesting. The B-29 had been forced to land in Greenland due to weather or mechanical problems - I can't remember which. The guy behind the recovery is well known in aviation circles but his name escaps me - Daryl Greenmayer, I believe. He owns / owned a decommissioned F-104. Anyway, the B-29 had been repaired to the point where it was ready for flight and they were test running the engines. A generator broke loose from its mounts in the rear of the plane, caught fire and the whole plane went up in flames. I remember them sitting there, watching the plane burn. You could tell they were all heartbroken but they displayed an "oh well" facade.

I also remember that one of the key people in the rebuild became quite ill and was flown to a hospital in Nova Scotia but he later died of his illness. That was almost as gut wrenching as the plane being destroyed. All through the documentary, this chap - his name escapes me too - was always happy and a veritable wealth of knowledge. His death really put damper on the whole project.

Thats a wild story. I am inpressed sounds like both crews had their work cut out for them. NIce job on both your reports. I agree this forum is wonderful it has sure taught me a whole lot. Thanks again.

Anyone remember seeing that story about a decade ago on PBS when they found a 29 in the artic or something. They were trying to fix it and get it flying again. Well to make a long story short they got all engines running then she caught on fire and sank in the water and that was the end of that. To my best rememberance no one was injured but the aircraft was lost. Boy it would have been nice to see them lift her off the ground. But it just wasn't ment to be. Too bad.

I'll be the first to say I'm wrong, but let me clarify my statement. The narrator implied it could "tow" a disabled fighter back to base. Not one that still had power available so he wasn't "deat weight". I think you would agree the booms are not sressed to tow an F-4 or F-105 that was flamed out and keep it at a level altitude. That was what I meant. Your senario was quite plausibel and logical. Of course a lot of skill and some luck was involved. Great Save! I don't doubt similar "saves" occured. If the KC-135 booms are stessed for this type of dead wt. "towing" I would love to see it in a manual. What about the KC-10 boom? Thanks for keeping the "record" straight. That one of the reasons the Forum is so great!

Pretty kool!!!!!!!!

Mel

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but KC-135's can "tow" fighters.This is a story that comes from my own personal history as I was the debriefer for this flight after it was over.

While deploying to Ramstein AB from Seymour Johnson NC in 1983 our F-4E's flew non-stop from Goose Bay Labrador to Germany. To accomplish this each group of 4 aircraft had there own dedicated tanker that would top off the jets every hour or so. While over the North Atlantic one of the jets lost an engine with the closest emergency stop being Keflavic Iceland, which at the time of the incident was over 700 miles away. The only way the pilot could maintain minimum airspeed to keep the jet in the air was to run the burner on the other engine. The added drag of a dead engine combined with three big ole gas tanks and travel pods hanging under the wings didn't help the one good engine any either and the pilot was unable to maintain altitude. This put him into a catch-22. To try and keep the jet in the air he had to run the good engine at almost full burner which caused him to use a lot of gas, which in turn made him have to get more gas from the tanker which caused him to be heavier which made him have to run in full burner Etc. Etc.. Each time he hooked up with the tanker, the tanker would tow him back up a few thousand feet. The boom on the tanker has little fingers that grap onto the recepticle. This keeps the boom from breaking away easily during refueling and this is how the tanker "towed" the jet.

Well after about three hours of being run in afterburner, the good engine was starting to give up the ghost and was no longer giving enough thrust for the jet to operate on its own without the tanker pulling it for more than about 5 - 10 minutes at a time. It was during this time the F-4 and tanker made it down to what the wingman said looked like 50 ft off the top of the waves trying to get reconnected and pulled back up. The rest of the trip to Keflavik was accomplished this way, reconnect, tow, forceable disconnect, reconnect. The tanker pulled the F-4 probably the last 200 miles of the trip and turned it loose on short final where it landed uneventfully.

Everybody in both aircraft knew the importance of what was going on, The North Atlantic is not too warm in late October and even in their poopy suits the aircrew wouldn't have last more than 45 minutes in the water. I know for sure the F-4 crew was awarded "aircrew of distinction" by TAC and I am pretty sure the 135 crew was awarded aircrew of the year by SAC. I will have to see if I still have the "TAC Attack" magazine that had this featured in it.

This all happened twenty years ago so some of my numbers might be off a bit, but it did happen and it happened fairly regular during Vietnam.

So yes, KC-135's can "tow" airplanes.

I agree, the interviews with the "older" guys was pretty neat!!!!!!


I wish i knew how to dive!!!!!!!!

I watched it...the best part was interviewing the last surviving crew member to get the real story.

Regards, Dan

What I find it there are more and more mistakes related to WW II documentaries as well as Korea and Vietnam becasue we have lost a lot of the "real" experts that lived through it and now we have "self professed" experts that don't research everything they put out. Example: Did you know the KC-135 could "tow" a fighter back to it's base to land! Give me a break! They were known to dive when a fighter flamed out and gave the guy a chance to get some fuel for a restart, but those incidents were very few and far in between. Be wary of everything you read, see or hear on the Discovery or History Channel. 95% may be truth, but there is some "misinformation" floating around.

Deep Sea Detectives. Was a bit disappointed in this show, but that's what you get when anchorheads try to talk things with wings.

Was still cool to see the footage though...


Fade to Black...

Yup!!!!

The plain was doing experiments for the Gov. when it crashed... they discovered the wreck and photographed it!!!


Way kool!!!

Lake Meade ? Nevada ?