Monday, January 23, 2017

Sunken B-29 Fortress on Eielson AFB, AK


Located southeast of Fairbanks, and just north of the base, beyond the end of the long runway, an iconic piece of US Air Force history lies abandoned in a flooded gravel pit. The object in question is a mighty Boeing B-29 Superfortress, which over the years has garnered the moniker ‘Lady of the Lake’.  The conventional wisdom was it was intentionally placed there for water rescue training. Waid estimates it was probably placed sometime between 1954 and 1956.

The abandoned World War Two aircraft, which is submerged in an artificial pond at the side of Transmitter Road, has been a well-known landmark at Eielson AFB for more than 60 years.

But a recent underwater survey of the wreck uncovered its identity, confirming long-circulating rumours that the Lady of the Lake was an aircraft of historic significance. In August 2014 the Daily News-Miner spoke with base historian Jack Waid, who’d spent years working to trace the submerged aircraft’s history.

During the meticulously-planned survey, divers recovered the wireless operator’s desk, which sported the aircraft’s serial number: 44-62214. Armed with this information, Waid was able to confirm an Eielson AFB legend that the Lady of the Lake was the aircraft that detected the first evidence of Soviet atomic testing in 1949

There’s no known record of the aircraft being towed from storage at Eielson AFB to its watery grave nearby, but it’s likely that the move took place in 1955 or 1956. Of course, the result is the same: the last surviving example of a WB-29 model Superfortress,

https://abandonedandurbex.tumblr.com/post/156184482345/os-sunken-b-29-fortress-on-eielson-afb-ak
http://www.newsminer.com/news/local_news/eielson-s-lady-of-the-lake-had-role-in-cold/article_8474bfb2-25e3-11e4-9d79-0017a43b2370.html

10 comments:

  1. We really enjoy your postings...My wife and I learn a LOT !

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    1. thanks! Any thing in particular that gets your attention more than the rest?

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  2. Being more a motorcycle and airplane guy than a car guy, I of course enjoy things with front forks and wings more, so that gets my attention. Your stories about oddball individuals - like the mathematician - I really like too. But anything out of the ordinary that you have dug up is great.

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    1. cool.. those seem to me to be the only things worth sharing. I'm bored as hell of F1 coverage, and new car reviews, and the Motor Trend magazine type of new vehicle coverage. If that was all there was, I'd post pretty flowers and kittens instead. But back in history there were amazing things, and amazing people... and astonishing car designs. So thank god for that, as I can find and share a lot of it. Sorry to say, not as much with wings and motorbikes was publicized as car stuff, so there isn't as much to find and share.

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  3. Most everything mechanical!.....pre 80 F1 & older GT racing...Café race bikes...etc.

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    1. cool... I don't enjoy much of anything newer than 1971. Have you looked into the tabs, or the archives, for things like the F1 coverage?

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  4. Replies
    1. Great! Enjoy! I recommend the "humor" tab as well as whatever you are specifically interested in. Have a good time!

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  5. Last night I found a site you may want to take a look at...Van Natta truck museum in Oregon..All sorts of logging items, trucks,dozers and locomotives..

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    1. thanks! Looking through it right now!

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