This spring, the B-29 Superfortress known as Doc, one of only two airworthy B-29s in the world, has been seen sporting a new look alongside the familiar image of the Dwarf from which it gets its name. While it may represent a change for warbird enthusiasts, the new paint scheme actually harkens back to the point when the aircraft first received the name Doc, long before it was recovered from the missile range at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, and well before its first post-restoration flight on July 17, 2016.
The history of Doc has been told on several sites, including here on Vintage Aviation News, but one key aspect of its time in the US Air Force after WWII reveals the origin for the name “Doc“. After Doc rolled off the Boeing-Wichita assembly line in Kansas as construction number 10865 and was delivered to the US Army Air Force as 44-69972, the aircraft was sent to the Bechtel-McCone Modification Center in Birmingham, Alabama in March 1945 to receive its combat equipment. One month later, 44-69972 was sent to Barksdale Army Airfield, Louisiana, to join the Combat Crew Training Squadron of the 331st Army Air Field Base Unit (AAFBU). Following Japan’s surrender on August 15, 1945, 44-69972 was sent to Pyote Army Airfield, Texas, where the aircraft would be kept in outdoor storage alongside numerous other B-29s. In 1950, the aircraft was placed back into active duty and was flown from Pyote to Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio to be modified as a trainer variant of the Superfortress, the TB-29.
Doc was later assigned to another squadron at Griffiss, the 4713rd Radar Evaluation Flight in 1954, before being reassigned to the 17th Tow Target Squadron in May 1955, then stationed in Yuma, Arizona, to tow gunnery targets. This would be Doc‘s final assignment in the United States Air Force before it was transferred to the US Navy to become a target on the weapons range of Naval Air Weapons Center China Lake, California, where it would remain for over 40 years before its recovery in 1998 that put the aircraft on the long road to its return to airworthiness. When Air Force veteran Tony Mazzolini led the team of volunteers that went to retrieve Doc from China Lake, the sun-bleached remains of the radar calibration paint scheme and the nose art of Doc were still visible when the venerable aircraft was towed out of the scorching desert. According to the crew of Doc, the aircraft was painted during its winter hiatus in the B-29 Doc Hangar, Education & Visitors Center at Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport, and it was done to replicate the markings originally wore on the aircraft during its time with the 1st Radar Calibration Squadron, and which it wore when Tony Mazzolini led a team of volunteers to recover the B-29 from the desert at China Lake, some 30 years after Mazzolini first saw the aircraft at Griffiss AFB.
