Originally Posted By: Mystic
A guy inside the cockpit told me that the engines are terrible, burn oil and are not extremely reliable. But the B-29 was a huge advance in WWII.
I saw a video of the engines starting on this B-29 (I think that video was shown at this website, actually) and there was a guy with a fire extinguisher standing close to each engine as each engine was started up.
Very true, the original R-3350 was notorious for engine fires in B-29s. Between oil leaks and engines that are hard to keep cool, they often caused problems. Even Fifi had an engine fire many years ago, I'm very glad they were able to land safely and repair her.