Fifi flies in, wins the hearts and minds,

and leaves the crowd calling for more.  And yes, there indeed was a crowd, large all day on Saturday and even larger on Sunday.   When I arrived on Sunday, this winsome lady had just taken off with her ten crew and a handful of wealthy sightseers.  She would return one hour later, and fly a few times more.  Since it isn't exactly inexpensive to run those engines, she's a lot more expensive in the air, than on the ground.

On the ground, those who would have to content themselves with getting up close and walking through her, began at  paying an entrance fee of a $10 donation to the Commemorative Air Force.

Here I am, complete with big boy pants

 Additional costs were based on where a person would be seated during the actual flight.  Some would sit up front with the flight crew, others would occupy mid-ship positions, and the tail gun position (reached by crawling through a pressurized tunnel) could imagine the view of the guy looking back at the mushroom cloud over two Japanese cities, after being dropped by a similar B-29.

I even got my picture taken by a buddy,  in front of the number 3 & 4 engines on the right wing.  An interesting tidbit - Fifi taxis after landing with only her inboard engines turning props.  Why?  Because she's so big, with a wingspan of 141 ft,  her propeller tips are only 18 inches off the tarmac.  Up north, where runway lights are taller (to not be covered by snow) they can be chewed up badly, which is also not too great to Fifi's propellor tips either.  This month, she will tour another eight or nine Florida towns - like a snowbird, this bird doesn't care for Winter, with her home base just a bit north of Dallas.

She also can carry a lot of bombs (two bomb bays held 20,000 pounds of bongs, so think about how many people if could carry if not hauling ordinance.  Of course, bombs are denser than people.  Well, some people are pretty dense and will pay from $500 to a thousand bucks for a ride of their lifetime.  The best things I observed were the many 80 year old Army Air Corp veterans who came out for their last glimpse of the aircraft type that won the war in the Pacific.  Some were former B-29 aircrew, others were Army and Marine vets who faced a determined enemy committed to defend their island.

Fifi is the only current flying B-29.  The B-29 that dropped the Hiroshima bomb is in Washington, DC at the Smithsonian.  Flown by Paul Tibbits, it was named after his mother, Enola Gay.  The other nuclear B-29, "Bocks Car" now resides at the Dayton, Ohio airbase that houses the U.S. Air Force Museum.  After today, I can say I've seen all three.

The lines were long all daySunday