sampling scoops to test radiation levels. On 3 September 1949, a WB-29 returning from Yokota AB, Japan, to Eielson AFB, Alaska, recovered radioactive debris in air sampling scoops from the cloud generated by the first atomic bomb test by the Soviet Union on 29 August. Airborne Early Warning In 1951, three B-29s were modified for use in the Airborne Early Warning programme. The upper section of the forward fuselage was extensively modified to house an AN/APS-20C search radar, and the interior was modified to house radar and Electronic Counter Measures (ECM) equipment. This development led to production radar picket aircraft, including the EC-121 Warning Star. (×3, converted) A Soviet-built copy of the B-29, the Tu-4, was used as the platform for a Chinese experimental airborne early warning aircraft, the KJ-1 AEWC, in the 1970s. MX-767 Banshee A study for the conversion of B-29s to long-range cruise missiles was conducted by the Air Materiel Command between 1946 and 1950; given the designation MX-767, it was given the codename Project Banshee. Flight tests were conducted, however no full conversions were carried out before the project was abandoned. Navy P2B patrol bomber Section source: Baugher The U.S. Navy acquired four B-29-BWs from the U.S. Army Air Forces on March 14, 1947. These aircraft were modified for long-range patrol missions and given the designation P2B-1S with Navy Bureau Numbers (BuNo) 84028, 84029, 84030 and 84031. BuNo 84029, previously AAF Ser. No. 45-21787, later went through modifications to carry the Navy's Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket high-speed rocket-powered research aircraft. The bomb bay was modified to carry the Skyrocket II under the belly and dropped for supersonic speed testing. The first Skyrocket test flight occurred on September 8, 1950, with test pilot William B. Bridgeman, and George Jansen flying the B-29. Scott Crossfield later broke Mach 2 with the Skyrocket on November 20, 1953; the last Skyrocket flight was in December 1956. The P2B-1S "mother-ship" was nicknamed Fertile Myrtle and was assigned the NACA number 137. As of May 2013, this aircraft was in the collection of Kermit Weeks at his Fantasy of Flight aviation museum in Polk City, Florida. The forward fuselage section was restored and briefly displayed at the Florida Air Museum in Lakeland, Florida. It has since been relocated to Fantasy of Flight's "Golden Hill" storage facility along with the remainder of the disassembled aircraft and is awaiting full restoration to airworthy flying status