ONBOARD AND HAMILTON BOUND

Running up the engines on the B-29 Superfortress heavy bomber nicknamed Fifi, flight engineer Phil Pedron, right, is watched by the B-29’s pilot, Steve Zimmerman. Spectator photographer John Rennison flew aboard from Windsor airport and arrived with many photos and video in-hand on the tarmac at Hamilton’s own John C. Munro.

THE MOST FAMOUS of the line resides in the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum at the Washington Dulles International Airport.

The Enola Gay dropped the nuclear bomb dubbed Little Boy on Hiroshima August 6, 1945 in an effort to end the Second World War still raging in the Pacific.

The Boeing B-29 Superfortress four-engine heavy bomber that touched down at John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport Monday is one of only two still flying in the world. The plane is in town as one of the showpieces for the 2018 Community Charity Airshow at the Brantford Airport on Wednesday. The event raises funds for the Rotary Club of Brantford and the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum (CWHM).

Also on display at the event will be the Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 demonstration team, the Canadian Forces CT-114 Tutor Snowbirds, A jet truck, the Avro Lancaster from CWHM, along with other planes from CWHM and the Waterloo Warbirds.

Following the show, the bomber will be on display at CWHM in Mount Hope until Sunday, with several pre-sold flights planned.

The plane with the silver fuselage, similar in shape to cigar tube, was rescued by from a bone yard in California, where it had been designated for target practice.

A large team from Commemorative Air Force lead by Vic Agather worked for nine weeks before it could be flown to its new home in Fortworth, Texas. Further upgrades followed over the next two years before it was able to fly.

The B-29 sitting outside the museum in Mount Hope bears a large “A” on its tail for Agather, and carries his wife’s nickname, Fifi, written large outside the cockpit. The Brantford air show is the only Canadian appearance for the plane this year.

The Commemorative Air Force has 170 planes listed in its inventory. The air force was the pattern on which Hamilton’s CWHM was founded.

Pilot Steve Zimmerman flying the B-29 Superfortress to Hamilton from Windsor.

A crew member loads items into the cockpit of B-29 Superfortress as it prepares to take off at Windsor airport.

Two observers keep an eye on the controls of the plane, spotting for the pilot of the B-29 Superfortress as it lands in Hamilton Monday.

Rick Syransky is seen through a pressurized doorway, where he sits in the gunner section of the B-29 now converted to carry the crew as it travels about. The crew areas of the airplane could be pressurized for extreme high-level flying.

Pilot Steve Zimmerman walks around the Commemorative Air Force’s B-29 Superfortress after landing in Hamilton.

Flight engineer Phil Pedron at the controls for the plane.