75 Years Ago: The Flight of the Enola Gay | Natnal Air and Space Mm

Contents:

• ENOLA GAY
• WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENOLA GAY AFTER IT DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB
• “OPPENHEIMER” TI: NC MAN HELPED LIVER ATOMIC BOMB ON BOARD ENOLA GAY
• IN 1955 AN AMERIN TV SHOW DID THE UNTHKABLE: IT AMBHED A HIROSHIMA SURVIVOR WH AN ENOLA GAY PILOT
• ENOLA GAY CREW RELLED FIRST USE OF ATOMIC BOMB
• THE SMHSONIAN’S DECISN TO EXHIB THE ‘ENOLA GAY’
• QUé PASó N EL ENOLA GAY, EL BOMBARRO QUE LANZó LA PRIMERA BOMBA ATóMI LA HISTORIA
• HIROSHIMA’S ENOLA GAY RRIED 12 MEN, HOPE AND THE WORLD’S ADLIT WEAPON
• THE NEW ENOLA GAY CONTROVERSY: HISTORIANS PROTT THE LATT SMHSONIAN EXHIB
• WHERE IS THE ENOLA GAY TODAY?

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. 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

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.

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.

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. While this exhib is now closed, Mm specialists ntued to rtore the remag ponents of the airplane, and after an addnal ne years the fully assembled Enola Gay went on permanent display at the Natnal Air and Space Mm’s Steven F. This past exhibn, cidg wh the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, told the story of the role of the Enola Gay securg Japane surrenr.

“OPPENHEIMER” TI: NC MAN HELPED LIVER ATOMIC BOMB ON BOARD ENOLA GAY

It ntaed several major ponents of the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber ed the atomic missn that stroyed Hiroshima, Japan. A vio prentatn about the Enola Gay's missn clud terviews wh the crew before and after the missn cludg missn pilot Col. Another portn of the exhib tailed the pastakg efforts of Smhsonian aircraft rtoratn specialists who had spent more than a rtorg parts of the Enola Gay for this exhibn.

On Augt 6, 1945, the crew of a modified Boeg B-29 Superfortrs named Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb ed warfare, lled “Ltle Boy, ” on the cy of Hiroshima, Japan. As a new and adly weapon, an atomic bomber, Enola Gay facilated a turng pot human history as hered the dawn of the Atomic Age and the threat of nuclear war.

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

Upon visual lotn of Hiroshima, Tom Ferebee aimed for the cy center and Enola Gay dropped the “Ltle Boy” bomb om 31, 000 feet at 9:15 am.

After “Ltle Boy” left the forward bomb bay, Enola Gay lurched upward, and Tibbets iated a high angle evasive manver to get as far away om Hiroshima as possible. Enola Gay tail gunner Bob Caron took this picture of the cloud of smoke billowg 20, 000 feet above Hiroshima after the explosn of the Ltle Boy atomic bomb on Augt 6, 1945. The history and memory of Enola Gay and s part the atomic attacks on Japan, and their effect on endg the war the Pacific and the nuclear tensns of the Cold War, reflects differg viewpots.

The Smhsonian has been at the center of bat over those differg perspectiv terms of the terpretatn and public display of Enola Gay. Enola Gay was to be the central artifact a planned exhibn at the Mm examg the atomic bombgs durg the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. In a revised exhibn, Enola Gay’s forward felage and bomb bay, two eng, a propeller, and other ponents, cludg a activated Ltle Boy bomb, went on display the Natnal Mall Buildg om June 1995 to May 1998.

ENOLA GAY CREW RELLED FIRST USE OF ATOMIC BOMB

Udvar-Hazy Center opened December 2003, the fully-assembled Enola Gay went on permanent display the World War II Aviatn display area the Boeg Aviatn Hangar.

The display of the Enola Gay has generated a variety of rpons rangg om public protts  1995 and 2003 to opposg pots of view exprsed  alternative exhibns, petns, and reports, and ntu to serve as a se study  prentg history the public sphere that is vigoroly discsed and bated to this day. The flight of the Enola Gay on Augt 6, 1945, signifi an end and a begng terms of our evolvg unrstandg of technology and warfare the twentieth century. After growg up there, Thomas Ferebee served on the Enola Gay flight crew and would ultimately bee the man who pulled the leaver to ploy “Ltle Boy” on Hiroshima on Aug.

THE SMHSONIAN’S DECISN TO EXHIB THE ‘ENOLA GAY’

In 1945, roughly 100 days before Hiroshima, Ferebee would be asked to serve one of the most secretive missns of the war, as a member of the Enola Gay crew. Tman, pulled the lever om the Enola Gay’s drop hatch and released “Ltle Boy” onto the unexpected cy below.

The bombg and the Enola Gay crew were to return home and face qutns and cricism for their role the endg of the war. 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.

QUé PASó N EL ENOLA GAY, EL BOMBARRO QUE LANZó LA PRIMERA BOMBA ATóMI LA HISTORIA

6, 1945, the Enola Gay's tail gunner Bob Caron wrote his wife that the crew had jt received a medal and she'd be readg about what they had done the newspapers. Pl Tibbets, who named the B-29 the "Enola Gay" after his mother, told Caron to scribe what he saw to the crew over the ter. The Smhsonian’s Decisn to Exhib the 'Enola Gay' - Public History Weekly - The Open Peer Review Journal.

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

What harbgers of the future of public history the US rid the mid-1990s fight over the meang of the Enola Gay? When the Smhsonian cid to exhib the “Enola Gay, ” the B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the director and curators of the Natnal Air & Space Mm (NASM) hardly anticipated the firtorm of ntroversy that would rult.

While the “Enola Gay fias, ” as some at the mm me to ll , was not the first skirmish Ameri’s ongog culture wars, was an omo warng of the battl to e. As a NASM curator volved the early planng of the exhib, who was also prent at the bacle, the followg is a first-person acunt of the origs, evolutn, and fate of the “Enola Gay” exhib, tled “The Last Act: The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II. One project was to brg the “Enola Gay” out of the Garber llectns and rtoratn facily, and fish the plane’s rtoratn time for a major exhib on the Capol Mall to ci wh the 50th anniversary of the end of WWII.

Sce I had wrten a doctoral dissertatn on the aftermath of the atomic bombg, later published as The Wng Weapon: The Atomic Bomb the Cold War, 1945-1950, Mart asked me to take the ial lead planng the “Enola Gay” exhib, until Tom arrived at NASM. To my amazement, he was entirely supportive of our plans to tell the story of the atomic bombg, and even offered to loan any of the artifacts his mm had s llectn, for as long as the “Enola Gay” remaed on display at NASM.

THE NEW ENOLA GAY CONTROVERSY: HISTORIANS PROTT THE LATT SMHSONIAN EXHIB

Mart and Steve likewise cid that we should show a draft of the exhib’s planng document and label script to those we thought might be our most proment crics, wh the hope of rpondg to and fg their cricisms before the “Enola Gay” went on display. My memory is that the AFA required to say the followg three thgs the “Enola Gay” exhib, and we were given to unrstand that the assertns were unequivol and non-negotiable. The exhib that opened at the Mall mm on June 28, 1995, was a pale shadow of the “Enola Gay” exhib as origally nceived.

The mimal exhib script and a short vio featured quotatns om the “Enola Gay” pilot, retired Air Force brigadier general Pl Tibbets, and the other crew members, scribg the missn. In retrospect, none of at the mm had an appreciatn of how much the polil climate had changed Washgton sce planng for the “Enola Gay” exhib began. On December 16, 2003, the day after the “Enola Gay” was unveiled s new—and likely permanent—home, NASM’s new annex near Dull airport, a half-dozen atomic bomb survivors joed fifty self-intified “peace activists” to unfurl a banner readg: “Hiroshima—Never Aga” ont of the plane.

“The Enola Gay and the Smhsonian Chronology of the Controversy 1993-1995, ” Air & Space Forc Magaze.

WHERE IS THE ENOLA GAY TODAY?

[2] My troductn to the Enola Gay me shortly after I arrived NASM, when I vised the Garber rtoratn facily.