80 RAF CENTENARY CELEBRATION BOMBERS
BOEING WASHINGTON
WASHINGTONWASHINGTON
BOEING
1950 TO 1958
the Boeing plant at Wichita, Kansas,
in 1944; the other three were much
the same age, but had emerged
from the Renton, Washington state,
factory. These machines were to
form the basis of the Washington
Conversion Unit (WCU) at
Marham, to get all aircrew used to
the foibles of the B-29.VETERAN BOMBER
Crews trained by the WCU were
ready to inaugurate the ‘new’ bomber
into frontline service in June 1950
when 115 Squadron accepted its firstexamples. By 1954 the Washingtons
had given way to the revolutionary
English Electric Canberra twin jet
and the bulk of the fleet returned to
the USAF. At Watton, 192 Squadron
soldiered on with the type in the
radio countermeasures role until
February 1958.
The first Washington to arrive
in Britain, WF437, had served the
USAAF from Guam in the Pacific,
initially named Princess Pat, later as
City of Trenton. It had carried out1918 2018Right
The fl ight deck of
the Washington
was spacious and
generously glazed. The
two pilots sat well back
from the windscreen,
with the bomb aimer –
complete with a famous
Norden bomb sight – in
the extreme nose.
KECMarham, to get all aircrew used to
the foibles of the B-29.VETERAN BOMBER
Crews trained by the WCU were
ready to inaugurate the ‘new’ bomber
into frontline service in June 1950
when 115 Squadron accepted its firstRight
The fl ight deck of
the Washington
was spacious and
generously glazed. The
two pilots sat well backI
t wasn’t a good start. As the first
B-29 was spotted on approach,
it was obvious the starboard
inner engine had been feathered
and oil was streaming out of the
nacelle. After it had taxied in, close
inspection of the airframe revealed
patches; the bomber had been hit by
anti-aircraft fire and been repaired,
but with little finesse. The RAF had
been reduced to accepting well-used
hand-me-downs.
Announced in January 1950
and achieved with great speed, the
USA was lending Boeing B-29
Superfortresses to the RAF under the
Mutual Defense Assistance Program.
The Berlin blockade had ended in
May 1948 and the Cold War had
become a harsh reality. Bomber
Command’s mainstay, the Avro
Lincoln, had limitations and Britain’s
strategic forces needed bolstering.
The Washingtons provided
a stopgap before the planned
V-bombers entered service. Their
appearance was fortuitous, five
months later the Korean War broke
out and the world braced itself for
another global conflict.
Brought out of storage, the first
four of what the ‘Brits’ called the
Washington B.1, were ferried to
Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland,for a brief handover ceremony on
March 20, 1950. Crews from the
307th Bomb Wing brought the
quartet of Boeings across the Atlantic
and they arrived in the circuit at
Marham on the 22nd where more
speeches and handshaking awaited.
It was B-29-55-BW 44-69680 – the
prospective WF437 – that suffered
the glitch and needed to feather the
massive four-bladed propeller on its
2,200hp (1,641kW) Wright Cyclone
R-3350 radial. It had been built atType: Ten-crew heavy bomber
First fl ight: September 21, 1942, entered service June 1950
Powerplant: Four 2,200hp (1,641kW) Wright Cyclone R-3350 radials
Dimensions: Span 141ft 3in (43.05m), Length 99ft 0in (30.17m)
Weights: Empty 74,500lb (33,793kg), All-up 120,000lb (54,432kg)
Max speed: 350mph (563km/h) at 25,000ft (7,620m)
Range: 2,850 miles (4,586km)
Armament: Two machine guns in remotely controlled fore and aft upper, and
fore and aft lower turrets. Two machine guns in tail position. Up to
17,500lb (7,938kg) of bombs
Replaced: Avro Lincoln from 1950
Taken on charge: 88
Replaced by: English Electric Canberra from 1953BOEING WASHINGTON B.I