Smhsonian Official Tells Why Enola Gay Exhib Was Shot Down | Physics Today | AIP Publishg

Contents:

• WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENOLA GAY AFTER IT DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB
• WHY DIDNT JAPAE SHOT DOWN THE ENOLA GAY?
• HERE’S WHY THE PILOT OF ENOLA GAY HAD NO REGRETS ABOUT DROPPG THE FIRST ATOM BOMB
• ENOLA GAY
• HIROSHIMA’S ENOLA GAY RRIED 12 MEN, HOPE AND THE WORLD’S ADLIT WEAPON
• THE ENOLA GAY'S HISTORY LIV ON
• EXHIBG THE ENOLA GAY
• THE INLIBLE ENOLA GAY
• CONTROVERSY OVER THE ENOLA GAY EXHIBN
• THE SMHSONIAN AND THE ENOLA GAY

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

The exhib markg the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II featurg the refurbished B-29 Enola Gay proposed by the Smhsonian's Natnal Air and Space Mm rulted fierce ntroversy over how history should reprent droppg an atom bomb on Japan.

WHY DIDNT JAPAE SHOT DOWN THE ENOLA GAY?

Experience the evolutn of the Enola Gay ntroversy by readg through a chronologil list of documents divid to five rounds:.

The ntroversy over how the Enola Gay should reprent history gradually be history self. Why was Enola Gay not shot down on eher n? What would have happened if the Enola Gay was shot down?

Did the Japane Empire attempt to shoot down the Enola Gay?

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

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.

ENOLA GAY

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.

Why uldn't Japan shoot down the B-29 plan Enola Gay and Bocksr rryg the nuclear bombs when they entered their air space durg World War II? What if the Enola Gay was shot down, and the atomic bomb fell to Japense hands?

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

ELI5: what would have happened if the Enola Gay was shot down while liverg the atomic bomb? Was there any ncern the US ernment that the Enola Gay uld have been shot down before bombg Hiroshima, and that the atomic bomb uld fall to the hands of the Japane?

Was there even a slight chance that the Enola Gay uld have been shot down by the Japane?

I was wonrg if a worst se scenar, the Japane uld have even salvaged the bomb om a shot-down Enola Gay? 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.

THE ENOLA GAY'S HISTORY LIV ON

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? 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.

EXHIBG THE ENOLA GAY

Japan officially surrenred on September 2, Enola Gay remaed service for several years before beg given to the Smhsonian Instutn on July 3, 1949.

THE INLIBLE ENOLA GAY

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

CONTROVERSY OVER THE ENOLA GAY EXHIBN

)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.

THE SMHSONIAN AND THE ENOLA GAY

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.