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The 1945 Japan–Washington flight was a record-breaking air voyage made by three specially modified Boeing B-29 Superfortresses on September 18–19, 1945, from the northern Japanese island of Hokkaidō to Chicago in the Midwestern United States, continuing to Washington, D.C. The flight was made by three United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) generals and other airmen returning to the United States from their overseas duty after World War II. At that date, it involved the heaviest load carried by an American aircraft (144,000 lb, 65,300 kg), the longest nonstop flight made by the USAAF (5,840 mi, 9,400 km), and the first nonstop flight from Japan to the United States made with a complete aircraft.〔The first flight from Japan to the United States was made in ''Miss Veedol'' in October 1931, but without landing gear; an intentional belly landing. See ("Oct. 5, 1931: First Nonstop Trans-Pacific Flight Ends in Cloud of Dust" ) by Jason Paur, ''Wired'', October 5, 2010.〕 However the flight did not break the then-world distance record established by the Royal Air Force in 1938. Originally intending to fly nonstop to Washington, D.C., the airmen encountered unexpected headwinds over Alaska Territory and Canada, and they predicted that two of the aircraft would not have enough fuel to take them the full distance. All three B-29s landed in Chicago instead, refueled, and continued to Washington, where each crewman was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, including the three pilots: Generals Barney M. Giles, Emmett O'Donnell, Jr. and Curtis LeMay.〔 〕 The USAAF distance record did not last long: two months later, another American aircrew flew a B-29 from Guam to Washington, D.C. a distance of 7,916 miles (12,740 km), breaking the world record. Nevertheless, the Japan to Washington flight pioneered a route similar to that used by later airliners.〔 Importantly for the airmen, America was able to demonstrate the reach of airpower in light of the nascent Cold War.〔〔 〕〔 〕 ==Preparation== Three B-29s based on Guam, which had spotless mission records and no mechanical difficulties, were selected for the mission. In a ten-day process that continued as a typhoon raged off Okinawa, the aircraft were stripped of unnecessary equipment such as armor and gun turrets, and the resulting empty spaces in the fuselage were faired over with smooth metal to minimize parasitic drag. Blister-type bubble windows were replaced with flat ones, painted group markings were removed, and the aluminum aircraft skin polished to a high luster, all in order to achieve the least possible drag. Twentieth Air Force markings were painted on each vertical rudder. The bomb bay in each aircraft was fitted with five 600-gallon (2,300 L) fuel tanks; added to the normal B-29 fuel tanks, this made a total of 10,000 gallons (38,000 L) of fuel capacity, as much as a railroad tank car.〔 Filled with fuel and 12 men, each ship weighed —it would be the greatest overload attempted on a B-29 at that time.〔 When the aircraft were ready, they flew to Iwo Jima and stopped for the night. There they were loaded with as much fuel as they could hold. It was known that the intended air base in Hokkaidō did not have enough avgas to fill all three B-29s for the long-distance flight, meaning that at Hokkaidō they could only top off the fuel tanks to make up for the amount used to fly from Iwo Jima.〔 On September 15, the three aircraft left Iwo Jima, flying north past Okinawa, where the typhoon had blown itself out. They continued to Hokkaidō where the approach involved some apprehension. The Japanese air base had been judged by Colonel William "Butch" Blanchard as suitable for B-29s, with a runway that was long enough and was near sea level for maximum lift in the densest possible air, but it was not known whether it could hold such heavily laden bombers without the concrete cracking.〔 LeMay sent Douglas C-54 Skymasters filled with 55-gallon (210 L) drums of avgas to Sapporo—the crewmen would have to top off their tanks by hand.〔 The Japanese air base that would serve as the launching point was called Mizutani at Chitose locally, and Sapporo Air Base by the Americans. Today it is the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force Camp Higashi-Chitose.〔〔 It was built at the southern part of Japan's northern island Hokkaidō, near the city of Sapporo, as the base for long-range flights to attack the U.S.—one-way suicide trips made by four-engine bombers—a function that it never served.〔 The three B-29s landed safely, and LeMay stepped from his aircraft to be greeted by approximately 30 Japanese soldiers and the base commander, who saluted for some time before realizing that LeMay had no intention of returning the salute.〔 With that treatment setting the tone for U.S.–Japan relations in the area, the airmen made certain to wear side arms as they walked around downtown Sapporo on the evenings of September 16 and 17.〔 LeMay later said that the 3,000 Japanese sailors manning the air base were "polite" and posed no threat.〔 〕〔 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1945 Japan–Washington flight」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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