A special visitor was in attendance at the Defenders of Liberty Air Show this weekend at the Barksdale Air Force Base near Shreveport, Louisiana. The B-29 named Doc, which recently returned to flying condition, made its first of four tour stops planned for this summer.
The show became particularly sentimental for those who have tracked Doc’s history, as Barksdale was the bomber’s first assigned base after it was built in Wichita, Kansas, in 1945.
The majestic and meticulously polished aluminum airplane made a special entrance on Friday, arriving in formation with a B-17, a B-25 and a B-52 — a practice flight for the formation show performances on Saturday and Sunday. Doc’s heritage flights with the historic bombers went off without a hitch.
The show organizers at the Barksdale AFB had to turn people away as the free event reached maximum capacity — reportedly about 170,000 people. The main attraction was the U.S. Navy Blue Angels. Other performances included aerobatic flights by Michael Goulian, Rob Holland and others, parachute demonstrations by the Canadian SkyHawks and a long list of significant military aircraft such as the B-2 bomber, the Messerschmitt ME 262 jet fighter, P-51 Mustang and more.
Doc is scheduled to make public appearances in June at the Wings over Whiteman Air Show in Knob Noster, Missouri, and an open house at Yingling in Wichita, Kansas. The B-29 will also attend EAA’s AirVenture in late July.
