Weather kept down a 90,000-pound piece of flying history this week.
Fifi, a World War II era B-29 bomber, was supposed to appear for tours and flights in Gainesville this week but couldn’t because of fog in Mobile, Ala., where it was supposed to have left from.
The Monday and Tuesday visit to Gainesville was initially moved back to Wednesday and then canceled completely.
“We know how much people look forward to seeing the airplane,” said Kim Pardon, 54-year-old ride coordinator.
The plane was scheduled to stay in Gainesville for two days before going to Daytona.
David Oliver, 29-year-old pilot and flight operations officer, said the plane can only fly when the pilots can see exactly where they are flying and the weather must be clear.
“It being a one-of-a-kind airplane, we have to be careful where we fly the airplane,” he said.
When the crew was supposed to take off Monday morning, he said, they couldn’t see the building next to them.
It takes a minimum of six people to run the plane, he said, but it takes a 14-person crew, including maintenance men, pilots and a ground crew, to get Fifi off of the ground in three to four hours.
“It’s almost like a small carnival of people,” Oliver said. “And it doesn’t move quickly.”
The plane is 100 feet long with a wingspan of 141 feet and can take off with 20,000 pounds of cargo, he said.
Now that Fifi is touring, most of the cargo is people.
Visitors can buy 30-minute rides on the historic B-29 for $570 each.
Visitors came to the Gainesville Regional Airport University Air Center, 4701 NE 40th Terrace, and were sad to hear Fifi wasn’t there, said Laura Aguiar, manager of public relations and governmental affairs.
She said she was also sad to have missed a chance to see this historic plane.
“It’s very unusual to see an aircraft of that age still flying,” Aguiar said.
Contact Ben Brasch at bbrasch@alligator.org.
