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

Contents:

• ENOLA GAY
• WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENOLA GAY AFTER IT DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB
• PILOT OF ENOLA GAY HAD NO REGRETS FOR HIROSHIMA
• IN 1955 AN AMERIN TV SHOW DID THE UNTHKABLE: IT AMBHED A HIROSHIMA SURVIVOR WH AN ENOLA GAY PILOT
• HERE’S WHY THE PILOT OF ENOLA GAY HAD NO REGRETS ABOUT DROPPG THE FIRST ATOM BOMB
• ENOLA GAY PILOT PL TIBBETS, 92, DI
• HIROSHIMA’S ENOLA GAY RRIED 12 MEN, HOPE AND THE WORLD’S ADLIT WEAPON
• ENOLA GAY: PILOT’S-EYE VIEW
• THE CREW OF THE ENOLA GAY ON DROPPG THE ATOMIC BOMB
• THE INLIBLE ENOLA GAY

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. ” 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, Enola Gay remaed service for several years before beg given to the Smhsonian Instutn on July 3, 1949.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENOLA GAY AFTER IT DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB

In 2003 the fully rtored Enola Gay was put on display at the NASM’s Steven F. 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.

PILOT OF ENOLA GAY HAD NO REGRETS FOR HIROSHIMA

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. Demonstrators prott at the Enola Gay exhib at the the Smhsonian Natnal Air and Space Mm's Steven F.

IN 1955 AN AMERIN TV SHOW DID THE UNTHKABLE: IT AMBHED A HIROSHIMA SURVIVOR WH AN ENOLA GAY PILOT

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. Enola Gay Pilot Pl Tibbets, 92, Di. Robert Lewis, -pilot and aircraft manr of the Enola Gay — the B-29 bomber that unleashed the first atomic bomb, Ltle Boy, on the cy of Hiroshima on Aug.

“He wasn’t horrified by meetg Capta Lewis, the -pilot of the Enola Gay.

HERE’S WHY THE PILOT OF ENOLA GAY HAD NO REGRETS ABOUT DROPPG THE FIRST ATOM BOMB

Air Force B29 bomber, the Enola Gay, took off om the s base Tian, near Guam, and head for the cy of Hiroshima southern Japan. So when Enola Gay approached at 8. The Enola Gay was 10 away when the blast went off, but still felt the shockwav.

But how did the explosn weigh wh the 12 men aboard the Enola Gay who dropped the bomb that day?

Pl Tibbets, the pilot of the B-29 bomber Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, died Thursday at his home Columb, Oh after sufferg a number of health problems. 6, 1945, when Tibbets flew the B-29 bomber Enola Gay over the Japane cy of Hiroshima and released a 10, 000-pound atomic bomb dubbed "Ltle Boy. Tibbets aga fend the bombg 1995, when an outcry epted over a planned 50th anniversary exhib of the Enola Gay at the Smhsonian Instutn.

ENOLA GAY PILOT PL TIBBETS, 92, DI

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 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 Aug.

Two other B-29s, the “Great Artiste” and “Necsary Evil, ” were supposed to go along to take pictur and rerd “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 was an important enemy ary se wh a wartime populatn about 280, 000, acrdg to the historians Gordon Thomas and Max half of them were about to be cerated, cshed, and irradiated by the c atomic weapon named “Ltle Boy” that the Enola Gay 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 would be the start of a ightful era of weapons that uld fy ntrol and menace 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.

)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 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 first the Enola Gay had to get off the ground.

HIROSHIMA’S ENOLA GAY RRIED 12 MEN, HOPE AND THE WORLD’S ADLIT WEAPON

William Parsons, who flew on the missn as the bomb bee of that risk, the 10-foot-long “Ltle Boy” had not yet been was a “gun-type” bomb, one which an explosive charge would fire a “subcril” piece of uranium 235 down a six-foot-long “gun” barrel to a send subcril piece of uranium, acrdg to Thomas and created cril mass and the explosive nuclear cha reactn that would lay waste to four cloth bags of explosive and the tonator would not be serted until the plane was the Enola Gay was now dog 180 mph but was nng out of ground. (Natnal Archiv)The weapon is hoisted to the bomb bay of the B-29 dubbed “Enola Gay” Augt 1945 on Tian Island the Northern Mariana Islands. (Natnal Archiv)‘A fiery red re’Thirty-one thoand feet above, the Enola Gay’s bombardier, Maj.

So had an ternal radar system that tected the ground, tripped the tonator at that altu, and iated the tonatn bomb traveled for six and explod jt short of the Enola Gay, meanwhile, lurched upward on sheddg the weight of the bomb and executed a hairp turn to pe the expected shock wave of the first, the crew saw and felt nothg. (AP)‘Brighter than the sun’As the Enola Gay and s two rt plan head back Tian, a young scientist named Luis W. Lewis wrote shortly after the B-29 he was pilotg, the Enola Gay, dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

ENOLA GAY: PILOT’S-EYE VIEW

Not om Lewis’s historic missn clu shock wave lculatns (left) and a drawg of the approach and pe plans of Enola Gay and s two pann aircraft.

THE CREW OF THE ENOLA GAY ON DROPPG THE ATOMIC BOMB

This stylized drawg by Enola Gay pilot Robert A.

On Augt 6, 1945, the B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the cy of Hiroshima. "Colonel Ferebee died Florida 2000, at the age of Air Force radar specialist Jab Ber was the only man who served on both the Enola Gay the Hiroshima bombg missn and the Bock's Car three days later when s crew bombed Nagasaki. "Stiborik died of a heart attack 1984 at age Jeppson was only 23 years old when he was assigned to acpany the atomic bomb on the Enola Gay.

Richard Nelson was the youngt of the Enola Gay crew.

THE INLIBLE ENOLA GAY

"Nelson died om emphysema 2003 at age Gay tail gunner Bob Caron wrote a book about the missn lled Fire of a Thoand Suns. He was 75 years Duzenbury kept tabs on the Enola Gay's eng and other systems while others tend the bomb and the missn self. "Duzenbury died 1992 at age Shumard assisted flight engeer Wyatt Duzenbury keepg the Enola Gay nng.

He armed the first atomic bomb while the Enola Gay was airborne.

He was upset that manr Pl Tibbets had named his plane the Enola Gay. A sgle airplane livered the new weapon of mass stctn—the Enola Gay. On permanent display at the Natnal Air and Space Mm’s Udvar-Hazy Center Chantilly, Virgia, the Enola Gay was donated to the Smhsonian Instutn by the U.