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B-29 Superfortress Doc To Get Permanent Home In Wichita

Hugo Phan
/
KMUW/File photo
B-29 Doc takes its ceremonial first flight since coming out of retirement last year.

The B-29 Superfortress “Doc” is getting a permanent home in Wichita.

The B-29 Doc Hangar and Education Center will be built on the grounds of Wichita’s Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport. The 32,000-square-foot building will include hangar space where the public can watch as maintenance crews work on the historic bomber. There will also be an education component focusing on science, technology, engineering and math.

"Doc’s home will be a centerpiece to celebrate not only Wichita’s place in aviation history, but it will be a cornerstone to celebrate the men and women who built, maintained and served in the B-29 to protect our freedom," said Jeff Turner, board chairman of Doc’s Friends, Inc., the nonprofit that owns Doc. "It will also be a unique place for future generations to connect with the majestic warbird through STEM education and perhaps they, too, will be inspired to a career in a STEM-related field."

Doc was manufactured in Wichita during World War II and used in radar training before it was retired in 1956. Volunteers spent more than 16 years restoring the bomber before it took flight again last year.

Doc's Friends is still raising funds for the $6.5 million project. Construction on the hangar is expected to begin in September and will take about a year to complete.

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Follow Nadya Faulx on Twitter @NadyaFaulx.

To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

Nadya Faulx is KMUW's Digital News Editor and Reporter, which means she splits her time between working on-air and working online, managing news on KMUW.org, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. She joined KMUW in 2015 after working for a newspaper in western North Dakota. Before that she was a diversity intern at NPR in Washington, D.C.