Boeing B-29 Superfortress

The Boeing B-29 Superfortress was one of the most advanced piston-engine aircraft of the Second World War. Built for very long-range bombing in the Pacific, it featured pressurised crew compartments, remote-controlled defensive turrets and a level of complexity that pushed wartime aircraft manufacturing to its limits.

Its historical significance is immense and complicated. The B-29 was the aircraft type used in the conventional bombing campaign against Japan and in the atomic missions of August 1945. Beyond that role, it marked a turning point in bomber design: larger, higher-flying, more automated and closer to the post-war strategic aircraft that followed.