Before the outbreak of World War II, American General Henry A. Arnold asked several airplane manufacturers to design a “super bomber.” In response to this demand, Boeing designed the B-29 Superfortress. Manned by a twelve-man crew, the B-29 carried its 20,000 payload 5,830 miles above enemy fighters’ effective altitude. Because of its operational altitude, the Superfortress crew areas had two pressurized, so Boeing designed two pressurized crew cabins connected by a tunnel over the bomb bay and remote-controlled machine guns since the standard design would have depressurized the cabin. In 1944, the United States military deployed the B 29 for the first time. It primarily served in the Pacific Theater, and it participated in famous missions such as Operation Meetinghouse (the firebombing of Tokyo) and the dropping of both atomic bombs. After World War II, the American military continued using the B-29 Superfortress for different functions, but it was retired in 1960.
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