An entirely new career began for the B-29 Superfortress when the Strategic Air Command decided to use aerial refueling to extend the range of bombers and fighters rather than ordering new, longer range bombers.

In 1948, Boeing reactivated its Wichita plant, nearly idle since the end of World War II, to convert B-29s into KB-29M tankers. They carried about 240 feet of hose and, installed in their bomb bays, jettisonable tanks which could hold about 2,300 gallons of fuel. Boeing then developed the flying boom, an aerodynamically controlled swiveling and telescoping arm that could be guided into a receptacle on top of the receiving aircraft’s fuselage. In 1950, the KB-29P tankers, equipped with the flying boom, began operation. Between 1948 and 1951, 208 B-29s were converted for aerial refueling.