Current status of the "Kee Bird" B-29 Superfortress

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Member for

14 years 7 months

Posts: 144

I found a interesting article today regarding the famous B-29 "Kee Bird" that was haphazardly (and unsuccessfully) rescued by Daryl Greenemyer and his team.
When the aircrafts charred remains were left on the ice where it came to rest, everybody thought that when the ice thawed out, that the remains would sink to the bottom, but apparently, it came to rest on a solid piece of ice and that recently its remains were recovered by Daryl's pilot (the name escapes me, but he was a relation of Baron von Richtofen and pilot of the crews DHC-4 Caribou), transfered to Thule AFB and then shipped to a unknown musuem in the Netherlands. I'm not sure on the validility of this information, so does anyone else know where the remains of the Kee Bird now rest?
:)

Original post

Member for

15 years 4 months

Posts: 178

Well,

Being a Dutchie and working in a Dutch aviation museum, i can tell you that it isn't OUR museum who has some parts... It could be that our Airforce museum has some bits and pieces of this aircraft, but im not shure about that either...

Can you perhaps post a scan of that article? or a link?

This can provide some answers to this mistery :)..

Regards,

TG1984

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 1,418

As there is already a complete B29 in Holland (in which they have no interest), I am sure that no Kee Bird parts made it to Holland. Those parts by by the way, were all in place where Kee Bird ended or 2 years ago.

BW R

Member for

15 years 4 months

Posts: 178

As there is already a complete B29 in Holland (in which they have no interest), I am sure that no Kee Bird parts made it to Holland. Those parts by by the way, were all in place where Kee Bird ended or 2 years ago.

BW R

Do you have a location where i can find this aircraft?

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 1,418

In Zeeland, but you have to dive for it. It is complete.

Member for

16 years 5 months

Posts: 5,999

As there is already a complete B29 in Holland (in which they have no interest).

BW R

...well thats a new one on me, whereabouts is it.? I thought Duxfords example was the only one in Europe.!:confused:

Member for

15 years 4 months

Posts: 178

hmzzz well that's not an option... my Buoyancy isn't good enough to dive (i don't get down easy)...

Thnx for the info though...

Grtz,

TG1984

Member for

14 years 11 months

Posts: 18

KeeBird remains

After the tragic fire with KeeBird and the Daryl Greenemyer men left, I read in Hunting Warbirds that the guy (??) with the original recovery permit had to go back and 'clean up', bulldoze the camp- and aircraft remains all together in a 'pile'?! He and some military (Thule) men went back to see, it was stated in the original papers that the sight would be cleared-cleaned when finnished with KeeBird.

I do hope that some remains has been saved and moved to 'civilisation'. The BBC program ended with the fire, but the book described more and out of that it felt like it all was waisted-trashed?!

The Dutch B-29, is that one in storage or crached in the sea??

Member for

18 years 2 months

Posts: 2,245

As far as I know the outer wings, engines and some other parts are still there and would be useful for a restoration of another B-29. I too would like to know more about the Dutch B-29!

Member for

15 years 4 months

Posts: 178

EHVB said that this aircraft was on the bottom of the sea at Zeeland... so you have to dive to it...

So NO B-29 on the dry parts of the Netherlands ;)

Grtz,

TG1984

Member for

14 years 11 months

Posts: 18

Kee Bird

noted an other discussion about Kee Bird at;
http://www.homebuiltairplanes.com/forums/warbirds/5277-recent-kee-bird-picture.html

but the guy Reew....... has some pictures on Kee Bird, but have not found any pictures after the NOVA (not BBC!) film. Do anyone have updates on this. The Kee Bird homepage (just) talkes about the history until the crew was rescued but there are nothing of the status today (2009)!

KB burnt and broke in pieces, the centerwing should be non usefull for restoration and front fuselage was broken of just front of centerwing, how much burnt? Aft also broken of, tailgunners compartment ok? Fouga talks of outerwings and engines?, yes but what happend after they bulldozed all the pieces together?

On the link 'homebuilders' above one of the last entries talks about Hoffmans book and seems to have read it. Hoffman describes that they missed to dismantle the temporay fueltank to the auxill.... (the put put) after starting up the engines. And when taxiing the fuel splashed on the warm put put and. Todays status anyone??

Lawrence

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 1,418

EHVB said that this aircraft was on the bottom of the sea at Zeeland... so you have to dive to it...

So NO B-29 on the dry parts of the Netherlands ;)

Grtz,

TG1984

It ditched in the late Fourties, and took almost 2 hours before it sank. It is there, complete at 30 meters below the surface. Next year we might bring something up, but that are only [lans so far. It has been discussed severall times here at FPF in the past. Here in Spain, we also have the location of 5 Dornier (Super) Wals that were sunk at the end of the war. Thats also a nice project.

BW R

Member for

14 years 7 months

Posts: 144

Correct. There was a big number of complaints to Greenemyer over the way he handled the whole "mission" including the way he just left the remains. I've also heard that the family of Rick Kriege, who sadly died during the attempted rescue of the Kee, have sued Daryll on the grounds that he overworked him. Not sure how that ended up, but i've read many articles all saying that Greenemyer is known as quite unprofessional and stupid and is not respected in the aviation industry much.
I always had a funny feeling about him at the way he just sat there and watched the Kee burn to the ground without much emotion.
I'd be completely in bits seeing such a beautiful piece of engineering burn in front of me.

Member for

16 years 2 months

Posts: 2,841

Kee Bird's engines

I gather the engines were new and loaned to Greenamyer for the expedition so he could get the aircraft back and return them once Kee Bird had made it home.
I bet that, amongst other folk, the owners of the engines weren't too pleased either - especially if it is true that the motors were bulldozed into a heap afterwards with the rest of the remains.

Anon.

Is this Kee Bird? Not sure who the photo should be credited to, it was emailed to me, but it looks to be of Kee Bird sometime after the fire.

Steve

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 10,168

Those are indeed the remains of the Kee bird..

Member for

14 years 7 months

Posts: 144

An article said those snaps were taken in the 2000's by somebody in a DC-3.
But the shadow you can see on the ice is clearly the shadow of a DH-4 Caribou, possibly the (Kee Bird II) same one used for the operation?
Makes me wonder if this was taken possibly the year after during the "clean up" op.
Any thoughts?

Member for

18 years 4 months

Posts: 241

[QUOTE=PBY-5A;1443541]
But the shadow you can see on the ice is clearly the shadow of a DH-4 Caribou, possibly the (Kee Bird II) same one used for the operation?
QUOTE]

It looks like a C-130 to me.

I was thinking C-130 too, but didn't want to embarrass myself :rolleyes:

Steve

Member for

18 years 4 months

Posts: 241

You know me Steve, always happy to embarrass myself!

Member for

18 years 5 months

Posts: 233

Looking at that photo, have the remains of the broken tail section been blown in front of the left wing by winds and are submerged? I remember the rear fuselage breaking and collapsing during the video of the fire.

It looks as if there is a lot left to be salvaged in the future. It's been brought up that new generation cargo airships could accomplish this job with little difficulty.