{"id":6940,"date":"2018-07-23T11:40:22","date_gmt":"2018-07-23T15:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.monsffa.ca\/?page_id=6940"},"modified":"2018-07-23T11:42:05","modified_gmt":"2018-07-23T15:42:05","slug":"6940-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.monsffa.ca\/?page_id=6940","title":{"rendered":"A LOOK AT AVIATION HISTORY"},"content":{"rendered":"
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WWII-era B-29 stops in St-Hubert<\/h2>\n<\/hgroup>\n

Montreal Gazette,

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THE CANADIAN PRESS Allen Benzing pilots a Boeing B-29 Superfortress which made a stop in Montreal Sunday.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ST-HUBERT At over 70 years of age, the Second World War-era bomber known as \u201cFifi\u201d is among the last of its kind.<\/p>\n

The Boeing B-29 Superfortress, which was delivered in 1945, is one of only a few dozen of its model still in existence \u2014 and one of only two that still flies.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, onlookers huddled under umbrellas at Montreal\u2019s StHubert airport as smoke billowed from Fifi\u2019s propellers and her engines began to roar.<\/p>\n

Moments later the plane was airborne, its slim silver nose cutting through rainy skies as it took off for one of several daily demonstration flights on the fifth day of her first ever Canadian tour.<\/p>\n

Half an hour later, the plane landed and was taxied in so Fifi could meet its waiting fans, all of whom seemed eager to get a closeup view of a piece of aviation history.<\/p>\n

While it has touched down in Canada before, organizers with the Dallas-based Commemorative Air Force said it\u2019s the first time the plane has stopped for a tour, where visitors can explore the plane\u2019s interior or even take a ride \u2014 although those don\u2019t come cheap.<\/p>\n

A half-hour flight starts at just under US$600 \u2014 about $800 Canadian \u2014 and range up to almost US$1,700 for the best seat in the cockpit.<\/p>\n

After it leaves Montreal on Monday, Fifi will make seven stops in Ontario, including in Ottawa, Kitchener and Hamilton.<\/p>\n

Retired commercial airline pilot Allen Benzing, who has been flying the plane for three years, says the 73-year-old bomber can be \u201ccantankerous\u201d while on the ground.<\/p>\n

It has to be directed with brakes and levers since there\u2019s no steering wheel, and while its engines start reliably, that\u2019s only if you know what you\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t, she\u2019ll make a fool of you,\u201d he said in an interview from the pilot\u2019s chair.<\/p>\n

But in the air, it\u2019s a different story.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt slower speeds, it\u2019s quite ponderous,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, once you get to near cruise speed, it flies very well, it\u2019s very stable, it\u2019s very much like a Boeing you\u2019d fly otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fifi entered service shortly before the war ended, meaning this particular plane was used for training and never saw combat.<\/p>\n

But as a group, the B-29s made history in the Pacific theatre. Their bombing raids were so furious, it was said, the planes flying the tail end of the formation came back with debris from Japanese buildings stuck in their propellers.<\/p>\n

It was a B -29, the Enola Gay, that dropped the world\u2019s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.<\/p>\n

Despite being credited with helping to end the war, Benzing said most of the surviving B-29s met inglorious ends in scrapyards or as military target practice.<\/p>\n

Fifi was left in the desert for 15 years and was scheduled to be used as a target before the plane was located by the Commemorative Air Force in the early 1970s and restored by a man named Vic Agather, who named the plane after his wife.<\/p>\n

Keeping the plane in the air is no small endeavour, even though almost the entire crew, including Benzing, are volunteers.<\/p>\n

Benzing said Fifi requires more than 1,500 litres of gasoline per hour and costs over $10,000 an hour to keep in the air \u2014 which is all financed by the revenue from the tours.<\/p>\n

Montreal-area couple Rose and Gerard Plamondon were some of those opting to take a flight on Sunday morning, even though they acknowledged they could have flown to Europe for the same cost.<\/p>\n

Afterward, Gerard Plamondon said it was worth it for the experience of being \u201ctransported back to another time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe read a lot of history,\u201d Plamondon said, \u201cbut now we get to live it, that\u2019s how it feels.\u201d<\/p>\n

At slower speeds, it\u2019s quite ponderous. However, once you get to near cruise speed, it flies very well, it\u2019s very stable.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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