Well, one would think that by now everyone knows the model above is the work of two distinguished gentlemen visiting GMA for our warbird weekend.  This of course is the B29 built by Dan Stevens and flown by Mac Hodges.  Mac and Dan were undoubtedly a big draw for this weekend.

This is the second B29 built by Dan and a few of the specifics, according to Dan, it has a 20 foot wingspan, weighs 98 pounds.  It is powered by four ZDZ 80 engines, each with its own 32 ounce fuel tank.  It has 17 servos, 4 receivers, 9 battery packs.  It is basically constructed of foam, covered with balsa and fiber glass, then painted with latex house paint.  Dan says it was a 6 month building process.

The B29 carries an X1 rocket under its right wing, climbs to altitude and then releases the X1.  Dan flies the X1 glider back to what appears to be a landing, then noses up, fires a rocket, which burns for about 2 or 3 seconds which takes it back to an even greater altitude.  Dan then does a few aerobatic maneuvers and quickly lands so Mac can begin his performance with the B29.

Mac puts the B29 through some unbelievable maneuvers.  These include a flat spin, 4 point roll, tail slide, and a LOW inverted pass over the runway.  Perhaps one of the most daredevil maneuvers is that from altitude, power is reduced, down elevator is applied to nose down, beginning an outside loop with the bottom portion looking to be about 15 to 20 feet above ground.

The entire weekend was an outstanding sight.  Another top feature was the turbine jet performance by Craig Gottshang, flying his BVM King Kat with smoke.

Thanks to Lou Melancon for his expert and professional narration of events and flyers for the day.

Thanks to Craig Collins, Jerry Smith and Bruce Tarleton for the great pictures.  These three guys have provided close to 300 pictures and it was a tough job selecting about 20 of those for this page.  I hope to be able to make all these available in the near future on a CD.  As you folks with Windows XP know, Windows has a built-in Slide Show feature where you just access the folder containing the pictures and click the View As Slide Show link.  More details will be offered soon.

Also, for those of you that were at the field on Sunday, you may have noticed GMA member Stan Mack out near the end of the runway taking movies.  Stan is putting together a DVD movie that he will be offering for about $15 in the near future.  I believe it will include a complete flight of Mac's B29.  As soon as details are available for this DVD... and the CD with the still pictures, you will be advised.

And thanks also to Rex Briant for providing the spare parts for one of Mac's engines so he could complete his B29 show.  And Rex also provided the fireworks for the Saturday night show.

In the meantime here are some movie links that will give you a breif preview of what Stan's movie could be like.  Hopefully when you click on these links, your default media player, which is probably Windows Media Player, will kick in.  On your computer, these movies will probably be a little jerky, but the DVD that Stan is working on should be playable on your TV DVD player and be a lot smoother.  Check these out:

     B29 Trailer
     B29 & X1
     Stuka
     P51