What Was the Enola Gay? | At the Smhsonian | Smhsonian Magaze

Contents:

• THE INLIBLE ENOLA GAY
• THE ENOLA GAY'S HISTORY LIV ON
• EXHIBG THE ENOLA GAY

THE INLIBLE ENOLA GAY

Enola Gay, the B-29bomber that was ed by the Uned Stat on Augt 6, 1945, to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, the first time the explosive vice had been ed on an enemy target. Tman was rmed of the velopment while attendg the Potsdam Conference, and he turn told Soviet lear Joseph Stal that the Uned Stat had “a new weapon of unual stctive force.” On July 26 the Allied lears lled for Japan to unndnally surrenr or face “prompt and utter stctn.” After Japan ignored the mand, the cisn was ma to bomb Hiroshima.At approximately 2:45 am on Augt 6, 1945, Tibbets—who was now a full lonel—and a crew of 11 took off om Tian island rryg a uranium bomb that was known as “Ltle Boy.” The Enola Gay—Tibbets had a matenance man pat that name on the aircraft’s nose shortly before takeoff—was acpanied by var other plan. Tibbets flew the Enola Gay back to Tian, where he was award the Distguished Service Cross.

Three days later the Enola Gay nducted weather rennaissance the lead-up to the bombg of Nagasaki, Japan. Japan officially surrenred on September 2, 1945.The Enola Gay remaed service for several years before beg given to the Smhsonian Instutn on July 3, 1949. In 2003 the fully rtored Enola Gay was put on display at the NASM’s Steven F.

THE ENOLA GAY'S HISTORY LIV ON

After the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. The Enola Gay is a B-29 Superfortrs, which pilot Pl Tibbets named after his mother, and which had been stripped of everythg but the necsi, so as to be thoands of pounds lighter than an ordary plane of that make. While did not drop the bomb on Nagasaki, the Enola Gay did take flight to get data on the weather the lead-up to the send strike on Japan.

In the aftermath of World War II, the Army Air Forc flew the Enola Gay durg an atomic tt program the Pacific; was then livered to be stored an airfield Arizona before beg flown to Illois and transferred to the Smhsonian July 1949. But even unr the ctody of the mm, the Enola Gay remaed at an air force base Texas. The Commtee for the Rtoratn and Display of the Enola Gay now has 9,000 signatur of prott.

Adams, who is leavg his job after 10 relatively ntroversy-ee years, sent back a three-page answer stiffly turng down her requt for the Enola Gay.

EXHIBG THE ENOLA GAY

Demonstrators prott at the Enola Gay exhib at the the Smhsonian Natnal Air and Space Mm's Steven F. And as long as is on display, the qutns rais are likely to ntue — after all, they have been wh the Enola Gay sce first beme a hoehold name.

Tibbets Jr., 30, had handpicked the airplane on the assembly le Nebraska three months before and had jt had his mother’s name, “Enola Gay,” pated black letters on the nose.As the plane mbled down the airstrip at over 100 mph, he had his lucky cigarette se wh him one pocket, and a box ntag 12 cyani psul another.On Aug. Would the crew have need for the cyani?Two other B-29s, the “Great Artiste” and “Necsary Evil,” were supposed to go along to take pictur and rerd data.But “Enola Gay” was the “strike ship.”Fifteen hundred to the north-northwt, unr a wang crcent moon, lay a 400-year-old Japane cy most Amerins probably had never heard of but whose name was about to be etched to the pag of history.It was an important enemy ary se wh a wartime populatn about 280,000, acrdg to the historians Gordon Thomas and Max Man-Wts.Almost half of them were about to be cerated, cshed, and irradiated by the c atomic weapon named “Ltle Boy” that the Enola Gay rried.Tens of thoands more would die the same way at Nagasaki a few days later, and the world would subsequently be hearg about megatons, mutual assured stctn, proliferatn, nuclear wter, meltdowns and dirty bombs.It would be the start of a ightful era of weapons that uld fy ntrol and menace civilizatn.But as “Dimpl Eight Two” picked up speed that morng, s missn was born of s time: liver a blow that the Uned Stat hoped might fally end the global butchery of World War II. (The war Europe had end May.)This week, memoratns are schled across the untry, wh socially distanced ndlelight vigils and the tollg of bells, and bee of the vid-19, ceremoni and remembranc have moved onle.The Enola Gay, the Boeg B-29 Superfortrs that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, is seen on display July 29, 2020, at the Steven F.

(Matt McCla/The Washgton Post)One of the Enola Gay’s four eng. If this ighteng new weapon worked, the thkg went, would shorten the war, albe at a dreadful st human life.But first the Enola Gay had to get off the ground.Runng out of groundThe lumberg alumum plane wh a 141-foot wgspan had been stripped of s armor and all fensive weaponry but s tail guns.