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B-29 “Doc” Finds Forever Home
PHOTOS COURTESY OF BRETT SCHAUF, VMG
by Jenna Reid
When I first saw Doc in 2013, the B-29 was in a Boeing Quonset hut hangar unpolished with faded nose art and missing engines. Today, after more than 16 years of restoration, it is an active flying tribute to the Greatest Generation. As its third airshow season approaches, we received a private tour of the airplane’s newly opened hangar and education space.
In November of 2018, nonprofit Doc’s Friends officially welcomed its restored B-29 (“Doc”) into a brand new 32,000 square-foot facility located at Wichita’s Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport. After nearly five years of architectural planning, fundraising and construction, it all came together.
“The most exciting part was when they opened the hangar door and rolled Doc inside,” said Sam Frey, Doc’s Friends han- gar design committee chair and partner at Schaefer Johnson Cox Frey Architecture (SJCF). “I was enormously relieved he fit!”
Upon arriving to the hangar, visitors are immediately greeted by the B-29 through the building’s expansive glass window- panes. Frey likes to think of the hangar’s frontal design as a metaphor; the large
glass window is the frame with Doc as the big picture.
Frey and his team were tasked not only with creating a functional hangar space but a place to honor previous generations and inspire future ones.
“The vision behind the hangar was to build something where the public could see and experience the B-29,” said Josh Wells, Doc’s Friends general manager and executive director. “There is no other facility in the world where you can walk right up to a B-29, touch it, crawl in it and learn about it as it’s being worked on.”
The facility’s layout offers ample space for school groups, large events and confer- ence rooms for crew training and pilot briefings. An enormous image of Doc
flying over its hometown of Wichita is featured on the wall behind the reception desk. The lobby also features a gift shop area, gathering space (situated under a B-29 wing replica) and a commemorative “Veterans” wall.
The Hangar
To enter the hangar, you must walk through two (secured) double glass doors. Doc is showcased on a gleaming, well- polished f loor with organized supply and maintenance rooms on both sides (you can imagine the amount of tooling required to keep a 1944 aircraft flying).
The warbird faces the front glass overlooking the “hero plaza.” The plaza displays numerous bricks and stones pur- chased by people from all over the world
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