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WarbirdsNews has learned that the National Parks Service has decided to allow divers to visit the Boeing B-29 Superfortress which has lain on the bottom of Lake Mead on the border between Arizona and Nevada. As many WarbirdsNews readers will be aware, divers first rediscovered B-29A 45-21847 following a lengthy investigation in 2001.

The Superfortress crash-landed on the lake on July 21st, 1948. It was involved in scientific experiments with the Upper Air Research Project to study the variation in solar radiation with altitude. The plans required the aircraft to measure the radiation profile from nap-of-the-earth to 30,000′ and back. Flying from Inyokern, California, the crew were performing one of the last scheduled profile flights of the day. They had just descended from the stratosphere, and were leveling out low over the lake, flying at 250knots. Unfortunately, the aircraft’s altimeter had an incorrect setting, and the lake was so smooth and reflective that judging altitude visually proved very difficult. The pilot thought he was at 300′, but he was actually so low that the propellers struck the water’s surface, and struck it hard. Three of the four engines tore from their mounts, while the fourth caught fire. The left wing and empenage received significant damage as well. The crew were able to skip their aircraft back up a couple of hundred feet, but flying on one, damaged engine was not an option, so they carefully set her down, tail first into the water. The bomber floated for a short while, long enough at least for the five man crew to safely take to their life rafts. Then she slipped beneath the rippling water and that was the last anyone saw of her for the next five decades.

via BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES FOR GUIDED DIVING ON SUBMERGED B-29.

We’re running out of B-29s to restore. It would be nice if we could have a material condition survey conducted, and explore the possibility of salvage and restoration. Fresh water should have been a better environment than most.