FIFI to Fly Again Next Week

June 28, 2010 — Pending receipt of its airworthiness certificate, the Commemorative Air Force (CAF) plans to make the first flight in four years of its B-29 Superfortress, FIFI, sometime next week from its Midland, Texas headquarters located at the Midland International Airport. The flight was announced to take place this week but had to be postponed due to a scheduling conflict with the FAA.

CAF member-volunteers recently completed installation of four new custom-built engines to replace the problematic original Wright R-3350-57AM engines and all systems appear to be “go” for the first test flight. The new powerplants are a combination of R-3350-95W and R-3350-26WD engines and have required a considerable reworking of the engine mounts and a portion of the engine cowling. FIFI is the world’s only flyable B-29.

“The Midland/Odessa community has offered such great support for the B-29 during the last four years, we are excited to invite our neighbors out to see her first flight in four years,” said CAF President/CEO Steve Brown. “This has been an extensive project and the CAF is proud of the member-volunteers who worked tirelessly to get FIFI back in the air so quickly.”