AAF MANUAL No. 50-9, THE B-29, AIRPLANE COMMANDER TRAINING MANUAL FOR THE SUPERFORTRESS, 1945
民國34年，美國陸軍航空隊手冊第50-9號，B-29超級空中堡壘機長訓練手冊《Black Water Museum Collections | 黑水博物館館藏》
Foreword
THIS MANUAL is the text for your training as a B-29 pilot and air plane commander.
The Air Forces' most experienced training and supervisory personnel have collaborated to make it a complete exposition of what your pilot duties are, how each duty will be performed, and why it must be performed in the manner prescribed.
The techniques and procedures described in this book are standard and mandatory. In this respect the manual serves the dual purpose of a training checklist and a working handbook. Use it to make sure that you learn everything described herein. Use it to study and review the essential facts concerning everything taught. Such additional self-study and review will not only advance your training, but will alleviate the burden of your already overburdened instructors.
This training manual does not replace the Technical Orders for the airplane, which will always be your primary source of informa- tion concerning the B-29 so long as you fly it. This is essentially the textbook of the B-29. Used properly, it will enable you to utilize the pertinent Technical Orders to even greater advantage.
Henry Harley Arnold
GENERAL, U. S. ARMY,
COMMANDING GENERAL,
ARMY AIR FORCES
Early in 1939, when studies were started to determine just how to produce a bomber bigger and better than the B-17, the XB-29 came into being. Its basic design was determined in 1940. Three airplanes were built as prototypes for the actual production of the B-29, the first of these taking to the air in the fall of 1942.
Many qualities of the B-17 have been built into the B-29. The B-17 tail was one step in the development. In the early experimental stages, a B-17 was flown with dual turbos, the B-29 fin and rudder, the B-29 stabilizer and elevator, and even with the B-29 ailerons.
The B-29 is the first of the "very heavy. bombers." Actually, in physical size it is not much larger than a B-17 or a B-24, but its weight and power are twice theirs and its speed is considerably greater. Loaded down with gas and oil for a long ferrying trip, it holds almost as much fuel as a railroad tank car. Under normal loads, it weighs 1/7 as much as a rail- road locomotive and has four times the power. It is designed to carry heavy loads for long dis- tances at high speeds and high altitudes.
YOUR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES AS AIRPLANE COMMANDER
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