January 1940
Army Air Corps issues requirements for "Super Bomber.
Result is Boeing Model 341.

June 1940
Model 345, improvement over Model 341,
wins Army appropriations for further study, wind tunnel tests.

May 1941
Order for production of 250 B-29s.
28 months before the 1st prototype flight test.

September 1942
1st flight of the XB-29

December 1942
1st XB-29 delivered to Army, returned almost immediately
on a bailment contract for model development testing.

June 1943
1st flight of YB-29 at Wichita, Kansas

September 1943
1st flight of B-29-BW at Wichita, Kansas

December 1943
1st flight of B-29A-BN at Renton, Washington

March 1944
"Battle of Kansas" begins to complete and upgrade
175 B-29s to combat status.

June 1944
1st combat mission; India-based bombers raid Thailand.
B-29s based in China raid Yawata, Japan.

November 1944
Marianas Islands based B-29s raid Tokyo.

July 1945
Wichita facility production peaks at 4.2 B-29s per day.

August 1945
Largest raid of WW-II: 851 B-29s over Japan on the same day.
Hiroshima: 1st Nuclear Device ever used in war (Enola Gay)
Nagasaki: Plutonium Bomb dropped (Bockscar)

October 1945
Last B-29 delivered from the Wichita, Kansas facility.

June 1946
Last B-29 delivered from the Renton, Washington facility.

October 1947
B-29 is mothership for Bell XS-1
The mission results in 1st manned supersonic flight.

May 1948
Boeing reopens Wichita plant for conversion of
B-29s to KB-29 tankers and Hose receivers.

Feb - Mar 1949
4 pairs of KB-29s refuel B-50A (Lucky Lady II)
during 1st non-stop round- the- world flight.

1950-1951
Renton facility converts B-29s to KB-29 Tankers.

1950-1953
B-29s fly 21,000 sorties over North Korea
and deliver 167,000 tons of bombs.

1960
Last WB-29 retired from service.

On 25 June 1950, North Korean forces crossed the 38th parallel to attack South Korea.

As a response to the invasion, the USAF attached several Strategic Air Command (SAC)
units to the Far East Air Forces (FEAF) for combat. Eighth Air Force, however, played a
minimal role in this conflict. In fact, only one Eighth Air Force unit, the 27th Fighter
Escort Wing (FEW) at Bergstrom AFB, Texas, received a call to arms. Initially, SAC
deployed the 31st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron (SRS), while B-29s from the 22nd,
92nd, and 19th Bomb Groups (BGs) flew to the theater to form the FEAF Bomber
Command. Later, the 98th and the 307th BGs augmented the original B-29 units. The
B-29s launched a devastating strategic bombing campaign against North Korea, and by
late September 1950 all significant strategic targets were destroyed. These units did not
belong to the Eighth Air Force.