Since a few folks asked, here a thumbnail on "Myrtle":
Boeing B-29BW Superfortress 45-21787 rolled off the line a few hours after WWII ended. She went straight to McClellan AFB on 8/20/45 to be stored by Air Material Command. On 3/31/47 she was turned over to SAC to be retired on
4/14/47.On 5/31/47 she became one of four USN P2B-1S (sn 84029) patrol ships and hurricane hunters. She served the USN well for three years, three months. On August 9, 1950 she became "Fertile Myrtle", mother ship for the USN Douglas D-558.2 Skyrocket.
"Myrtle" served the Navy/Douglas project well, carrying the Skyrocket aloft 139 times. To become a mother ship "Myrtle" had all turrets removed, bomb bays replaced by a bay capable of carrying the D-558.2 including a large cutout at the aft end to fit the tail of the Skyrocket.
On August 27, 1951 "Myrtle" became a NACA aircraft, being stricken from USN records on September 10 of the same year. Under NACA control she launched the Skyrocket with USMC Lt.Col.Marion Carl as pilot to an altitude record of 83,235 ft. and with Scott Crossfield at the controls captured the world speed record of 1,327 mph, over Mach 2 for the first time.
Some time during 1957 "Myrtle" was sent to meet her end at Litchfield Park, Arizona. Instead of being scrapped, she was first purchased for a movie that was never completed, then into the hands of Allied Aircraft of Tucson. It is possible that she was owned by others during this period, but she remained in Litchfield Park until 1969.
The American Air Museum Society, with aircraft in Oakland and Novato, California, was headed up by Ralph Johnson and William Penn Patrick (late of Holiday Magic notoriety and preseidential desires). They had a P-51D "Bluebird", a TB-25 Mitchell and a Bushmaster 2000 (modern Ford Trimotor).
Civilian purchase of a B-29 was forbidden by Federal law as the aircraft was capable of dropping a nuclear bomb. AAMS, however, was able to purchase "Myrtle" because she had been under civilian ownership for more than twelve years. That fact plus Penn Patrick's government connections placed her into the hands of the AAMS.
Overhaul included replacing the highly modified central fuselage with a stock piece from a B-50 and replacement of the gun turrets with actual guns (blocked off, of course). Modern avionics, radios and navigation equipment replaced
1950s equipment and the four 0-10 hr. engines were stripped down and remounted. National markings were painted on and the NACA tail stripe removed. The "Fertile Myrtle" painting with the Skyrocket drop record board were retained on the port nose.On July 22, 1969 "Myrtle" once again returned to the sky for fifty minutes. She had a terrible tendancy to drop her starboard wing with full trim and hard work needed to keep her level. It turned out that the leather lining in the stbd. undercarriage bay had deteriorated and had been removed. Desert birds found that the wing interior was a nice place to get away from the heat and had, over the years, deposited over 200 lbs. of droppings inside the wing. Once these were removed the plane flew nicely.
The overhaul took over four months with Allied Aircraft doing most of the work. "Myrtle" now became N91329 (Expermiental). On November 4, 1969 she arrived at her new home at the old Oakland (North) airport. She flew the airshow circuit in the West for a few years, but the death of Penn Patrick (who looped his P-51D with a passenger at a low altitude into a mountain) and the dismantling of the AAMS combined with deterioration of her tail feathers ended her days aloft.
"Fertile Myrtle" was eventually purchased by Kermit Weeks. The last time I saw her nose was at his devestated museum in Florida. I was running a Red Cross shelter after Hurricane Andrew and went to see how much damage had occured. The collapse of the museum building left a long gash in "Myrtle's" nose, but that was nothing compared to the rest of the damage to the museum. The rest of the aircraft is, according to several sources, at Kermit's California desert storage site. It appears that she is slated for restoration to display status.
Sure would be nice if she could be displayed with one of the survuving Skyrockets.
Tom Young