Friday, February 20, 2015

Did you know there is a B 29 at the bottom of Lake Mead?



On July 21, 1948, the B-29 plummeted from high altitude down to as close to the lake as possible. Unfortunately, Captain Robert M. Madison lost his depth perception and plowed the huge plane into the lake at 230 mph. The impact tore off all but one of the engines and sent the plane skipping along the lake surface. When she eventually stopped, she began to take on water and started to sink. Fortunately, all of the crew was able to escape into life rafts and wait for rescue.

When it went down the plane and its five-man crew were testing a secret ballistic-missile guidance system known as a "sun-tracker," the highly-classified device, mounted in a dorsal dome atop the bomber’s fuselage, allowed a missile to get its elevation and orientation from sighting the sun.

Lake Mead's water level varies as much as 200 feet, and during a drought like we have now, it's only 110 feet under water.

When ambitious wreck hunters located the plane without permission in 2001, the Park Service began a legal battle to assert custody of the crash site and protect it from mistreatment.

 The NPS claims jurisdiction over the aircraft as it lies within the bounds of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area and is a National Historic Landmark.


http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/images-of-wreck-of-b-29s.html/4
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2015/02/06/drought-may-soon-yield-mysterious-wwii-era-bomber-beneath-lake-mead/
https://medium.com/war-is-boring/the-bomber-at-the-bottom-of-lake-mead-fd3686a9f9d7

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