Date:	Wednesday 21 July 1948
Time:	morning
Type:	Boeing RB-29F Superfortress
Owner/operator:	Naval Ordnance Test Station, NAWS China Lake
Registration:	45-21847
MSN:	13741
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 5
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Lake Mead, near Overton, Clark County, Nevada -   United States of America
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	NAWS China Lake, Armitage Field, Inyokern, California
Destination airport:	NAWS China Lake, Armitage Field, Inyokern, California

Narrative:
Boeing B-29F-100-BW Superfortress 45-21847: Delivered to the USAAF 13 September 1945. Modified to F-13; redesignated 1948 as RB-29. Assigned to Oklahoma City Air Depot (OCAD), Tinker AAF, Oklahoma. Re-Assigned to Combat Crew Training Squadron, 488th Army Air Force Base Unit, Chino AAF, California October 1945. Re-Assigned to 4196th Army Air Force Base Unit, Victorville AAF, California November 1945

Re-Assigned to 4117th Army Air Force Base Unit, Warner Robins Air Depot (WRAD), Robins AAF, Georgia April 1946. Modified for cold weather operation designated as B-29F. Re-Assigned to 4134th Army Air Force Base Unit, Spokane Air Depot (SPAD), Fairchild AAF, Washington, June 1946. Re-Assigned to 4144th Army Air Force Base Unit (Flight Test), Muroc Flight Test Base, California April 1947. Re-Assigned to 4127th Army Air Force Base Unit, Sacramento Air Depot (SAD), McClellan AAF, California June 1947 to September 1947.

Modified to RB-29. Assigned to Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS), NAWS China Lake, Armitage Field, Inyokern, California, July 1948. The aircraft was stripped of its armaments and fitted with a Sun Tracker, an experimental sensor unit that, when perfected, would allow missiles to navigate by the sun. Used for upper air research in conjunction with V-2, Aerobee and Viking rocket flights from White Sands, Nevada.

Written off (destroyed) July 21, 1948: Crashed into Lake Mead, Nevada, during a research flight. The crew of five was able to scramble away before the plane sank. The flight was for a secret missile guidance system that allowed navigation by tracking of the Sun. A low pass over calm water with pilot error put it into the lake. The trials required that the aircraft plummet from high altitude down to as close to the lake as possible. Unfortunately, Captain Robert M. Madison lost his depth perception and plowed the huge plane into the lake at 230 mph.

The impact tore off all but one of the engines and sent the plane skipping along the lake surface. When she eventually stopped, she began to take on water and started to sink. Fortunately, all of the crew of five were able to escape into life rafts and wait for rescue; the worst injury was Sgt. Frank Rico’s broken arm.

A Private dive team located the plane in 2001, and a later dive by government divers established the exact crash site at the bottom of Lake Mead. The bomber is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The National Park Service (NPS) opened the B-29's wreck site to divers under very strict conditions in July 2007 for a six-month trial. Despite being pleased with the overall preservation of the site by the two commercial use authorization (CUA) operations, the NPS closed the B-29 site for diving in 2008.

1. http://www.advanceddivermagazine.com/articles/B29/B29.html
2. http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1945.html .
3. [LINK NOT WORKING ANYMORE:http://www.baaa-acro.com/1948/archives/crash-of-a-boeing-b-29f-100-bw-superfortress-into-lake-mead/]
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Lake_Mead_Boeing_B-29_crash
5. http://www.lasvegasnow.com/news/the-mystery-of-lake-mead/79167933
6. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/dive-bomber-70888901/
7. https://www.nps.gov/lake/learn/news/b-29-dives.htm
8. http://www.divetheb29.com/b29/
9. https://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/maritime/expeditions/b29.html
10. http://www.georgewright.org/0580chenoweth.pdf
11. http://www.foxnews.com/science/2015/02/06/drought-may-soon-yield-mysterious-wwii-era-bomber-beneath-lake-mead.html
12. http://theweek.com/articles/546353/theres-mysterious-bomber-bottom-lake-mead
13. http://www.chinalakealumni.org/1948/1948mo.htm
14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Mead#B-29_crash

Shipwreck #4 - The Secret Of Lake Mead from NPS Submerged Resources Center on Vimeo.

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
12-Nov-2012 13:57	gerard57	Added
26-Jun-2017 21:43	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Cn, Operator, Total occupants, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Embed code, Narrative]
26-Jun-2017 21:44	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]