Re: Doc, (B29) took his first flight this morning.

Lee,

Any one of the warbirds flying (Fifi, Doc, etc.) in private hands could be lost tomorrow. Look at the B-17 "Liberty Belle" a few years back. What about the PB4Y that was being used as an air tanker back in the early 2000s and had the wings fold up? We lost a P-47 Jug in the Hudson just this past Memorial Day. Stuff even happens with insanely expensive, modern aircraft. We lost a billion dollar+ B-2 at Anderson AFB a few years back, simply because some rain water got into an air-data sensor. If you're gonna fly 'em, you're gonna crash 'em, and the older they are, the more vulnerable they are.

Even stuffing them and mounting them won't always keep them safe for future generations. When I was in college back in the late 1970s, a relatively rare Connecticut tornado virtually wiped out the Bradley Air Museum, which was the only vintage aircraft collection I had ever seen up until that time. I just about had tears in my eyes when I saw the carnage just one day after it happened.

Stuff happens. If we wanted more flying B-29s, folks should have save a few more before they went to the smelters. We Americans could take a few lessons from the Brits with regard to saving pieces of history.

/Kevin Madore