Summary The RAF possessed American-made B-29 Superfortress bombers briefly in the early Cold War. The Washington B.1 was not as impressive in RAF service, lacking combat action.
Spare parts, maintenance issues, and the Korean War rendered the Washington B.1 obsolete. When one thinks of heavy bombers of Great Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War and the early Cold War, chances are that person thinks of that island nation's homegrown Avro Lancaster and Handley Page Halifax (both propeller-driven), and the Avro Vulcan and English Electric Canberra (both jet-powered), not the American-made Boeing B-29 Superfortress.
The bomber was fast but rather vulnerable. Learn more about the Avro Lancaster . Moreover.
the famed "special relationship" between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland notwithstanding, you probably wouldn't expect an RAF warbird to bear the name of an American general who'd been a major adversary to the British Crown two centuries prior, namely General George Washington, who had successfully led the American colonists to victory over King George III's Redcoats during the American Revolution. Learn more about the English Electric Canberra . Yet sure enough, almost lost to history is the fact that during a relatively brief period of the early Cold War, the RAF did indeed possess B-29s, and they were indeed officially renamed the Washington B.
1 (obviously not to be confused with the supersonic North American Rockwell B-1 Lancer , which debuted in 1973). Simple Flying now shines some light upon this nearly forgotten aspect of both the Superfortress's and the RAF's illustrious histories. Washington B.
1 initial history and specifications The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is such an iconic aircraft that it needs no introduction to hardcore students of military history, but for the benefit of any novices reading this, here's a brief rundown. The B-29 was the largest and most capable bomber of WW2 and was in many ways ahead of its time. The "Superfort" made its maiden flight on September 21, 1942, and went into officially operational service with the US Army Air Forces (USAAF) on May 8, 1944.
With its 99 ft (30.18 m) fuselage length, 141 ft 3 in (43.05 m) wingspan, 135,000 lb (61,000 kg) max takeoff weight, twelve .
50 caliber (12.7 mm) machine guns, and 20,000 lb (9,100 kg) bomb payload, Boeing's behemoth B-29 bomber gained fame for its highly destructive bombing raids against Imperial Japan, particularly the Enola Gay and Bockscar , which dropped the atomic bombs "Little Boy" and "Fat Man" upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively, thus finally compelling Imperial Japan to surrender, thus ending WWII. However, the B-29's history as Britain's Washington B.
1 doesn't begin until March 1950, four-and-a-half years after World War II ended, when Britain was in need of strategic bombers to counter the Soviet menace and in need of a stopgap solution whilst its domestically produced Canberra bombers were still being finalized. Hence, the US loaned 87 of its B-29s to its ally "across the pond" (no B-29s were actually built specifically for Britain), whereupon the bombers received their official redesignation as the Washington B.1.
Thus, Britain became the only export customer for the B-29 except for two aircraft subsequently supplied to the Australians by the RAF (more on this in a bit). The original game plan was for up to 70 airframes to be delivered through March 1951, with another 124 of the warbirds the following year. However, fate would intervene to put the kibosh on that ambitious plan (more on this in a bit as well).
Operational performance As prestigious as the B-29's performance was in American hands -- indeed seeing renewed combat usage in the Korean War just a few short months after the UK started taking delivery of the B.1s -- its service with the RAF was comparatively pedestrian and lackluster, never fired a shot or dropping a bomber in anger under RAF control. As Dario Leone of Aviation Geek Club notes: "[T]he last bombers were returned in early 1954.
..While in service with the RAF the Washington was also used as Electronic signals intelligence (ELINT) aircraft.
Three Washingtons modified for ELINT duties and a standard bomber version acting as 'support aircraft' were in fact used by RAF No. 192 Squadron. They were decommissioned in 1958, being replaced by de Havilland Comet aircraft.
" Learn more about the de Havilland Comet . "Two British Washington aircraft were transferred to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in 1952. They were attached to the Aircraft Research and Development Unit and used in trials conducted on behalf of the British Ministry of Supply.
Both aircraft were placed in storage in 1956 and were sold for scrap in 1957." From there, Dario goes on to quote aviation expert Alex Patrick on Quora : ‘The B-29 wasn’t as impressive as it was upon introduction, and indeed wasn’t bought by the RAF to be a long lasting investment.'" Once the jet-powered Canberra went operational, the Washington was rendered obsolete.
What's more, as noted by Ed Nash's Military Manners , there were spare parts and maintenance issues that stunted the growth potential of the B.1, not to mention the timing of that aforementioned Korean War: "But these aircraft were all in storage and first had to be bought back to flight status and upgraded, principally with the fuel-injected Wright R-3350-57M engines. Problems began pretty much immediately when there were issues at the Curtiss-Wright plant that was contracted to conduct the refurbishments, revolving mainly around poor management and labour disputes.
.. And then, towards the end of June 1950, North Korea invaded the South, sparking the Korean War.
..Suddenly the USAF needed all their resources as a massive military expansion took place and the B-29s were employed heavily in the conflict by the USAF.
This saw the number supplied to the British cut to just 87, as well as complications on the supply of spare parts." In short, much ado about relatively little. Where are they now? Out of 22 surviving B-29 "Superforts" left today, to my knowledge, only one of them spent part of its official service life as a B.
1. And unfortunately, it's not preserved in a museum, but rather sitting abandoned at an Army testing facility by the name of Dugway Proving Ground in Utah (about 85 mi [137 km]) south of Salt Lake City ). We're talking about Serial No.
42-94502, which started life as a B-29A nicknamed " Star Dust " and " City of Terre Haute, IN ". and was initially assigned to the 330th Bombardment Group based at North Field (now Andersen AFB ), Guam. "Star Dust" was transferred to the RAF as Washington B.
1 WF444 in 1950, then returned to the US in 1953 for disposal, which explains how the plane ended up at Dugway for the intended purpose of being used as a target, but was then abandoned. Reportedly the plane is still there as of October 2023. There were five prototype and production variants, plus at least seven modified variants post-war.
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