The Boeing B-29 Superfortress was the biggest, most expensive gamble undertaken by the United States during World War II, exceeding even the fabled Manhattan (atomic bomb) Project in both of these categories.

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At 99 feet in length, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress was nearly 25 feet longer than the B-17, the long-range bomber it effectively replaced. See more classic airplane pictures.

Never before had so many new ideas been put together so rapidly in a single aircraft. The advances were startling and included the following: a huge new airframe that was a total departure from previous Boeing practice; new engines that had to go through a long and costly development process before they became even remotely reliable; new propellers that gave almost as much difficulty as the engines; a new pressurization system, larger than any previously attempted; a new high-lift, high-wing loading-wing design that promised range but at the cost of high landing speeds and tricky handling; a new and totally untried central fire control system; and many other less critical, but still untried, items.

Boeing B-29 Superfortresses were at the forefront of American air attacks on Japan. These raids were under the command of Maj. Gen. Curtis LeMay, and were completely devastating. By late spring of 1945, very little of Tokyo and other major Japanese cities remained intact.

Further, the press of the war effort required that this amazing new airplane be built in a brand-new factory, staffed largely by untrained personnel, many of whom had never touched an airplane before.

The aircraft was also intended to be deployed from remote fields in China and from tiny Pacific islands, where fuel, supplies, and maintenance would be difficult to assemble. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's pledge that the aircraft would go into action from Chinese bases by April 1944 placed an almost intolerable deadline on the program.

Finally, all of the money, intellectual effort, and priorities invested to create a nuclear weapon in the Manhattan Project would have been utterly wasted had the Boeing B-29 Superfortress failed, for it was the only aircraft capable of carrying and delivering the atomic bomb.

Edmund Turney Allen: the Dean of Test Pilots Test pilots have always been vital to flight, for the success of a new aircraft inevitably depends in great part on the ability and judgment of men and women who are willing to risk their lives for aircraft development. No one was more skilled than Edmund Turney Allen, who was widely known as the dean of test pilots. Allen had an unusual expertise in large aircraft, having made the first flights on such Boeing giants as the XB-15, Model 307 Stratocruiser, and Model 314 flying boat. On loan to Lockheed, he made the first flight in the famed Constellation airliner. Allen was particularly important because he insisted on integrating test flying with research and development, design, wind-tunnel tests, and production. Although he became Chief of Boeing's Research Division, he continued to fly test flights because his knowledge of large aircraft was second to none. When Allen died on February 13, 1943, in the fiery crash of the second XB-29, aviation lost one of its most heroic figures.

Read more about the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, and find specifications for this classic airplane, in the next section.

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