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

Contents:

• HIROSHIMA’S ENOLA GAY RRIED 12 MEN, HOPE AND THE WORLD’S ADLIT WEAPON
• ENOLA GAY
• IN 1955 AN AMERIN TV SHOW DID THE UNTHKABLE: IT AMBHED A HIROSHIMA SURVIVOR WH AN ENOLA GAY PILOT
• WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENOLA GAY AFTER IT DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB
• THE CREW OF THE ENOLA GAY ON DROPPG THE ATOMIC BOMB
• HIROSHIMA LOG OF THE ENOLA GAY
• ENOLA GAY: MISSN TO HIROSHIMA KDLE EDN
• THE INLIBLE ENOLA GAY
• TAKE A TOUR OF THE ENOLA GAY, THE U.S. PLANE THAT BOMBED HIROSHIMA
• THE ENOLA GAY'S HISTORY LIV ON
• ENOLA GAY AND HIROSHIMA
• THE ENOLA GAY'S HISTORY LIV ON
• IN 1955 AN AMERIN TV SHOW DID THE UNTHKABLE: IT AMBHED A HIROSHIMA SURVIVOR WH AN ENOLA GAY PILOT
• TAKE A TOUR OF THE ENOLA GAY, THE U.S. PLANE THAT BOMBED HIROSHIMA

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

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. 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.

ENOLA GAY

(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.

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

(AP)‘Brighter than the sun’As the Enola Gay and s two rt plan head back Tian, a young scientist named Luis W. 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.

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

” 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.

THE CREW OF THE ENOLA GAY ON DROPPG THE ATOMIC BOMB

Japan officially surrenred on September 2, 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.

Enola Gay.

Enola Gay, Hiroshima Missn.

HIROSHIMA LOG OF THE ENOLA GAY

Enola Gay, Nagasaki Missn. The crews for Straight Flh, Full Hoe, and Jab III flew their regularly assigned plan for the atomic bombg missns, but the crews regularly assigned to the Enola Gay, Bocksr, The Great Artiste, Necsary Evil, Lagg’ Dragon, and Up an’ Atom flew different plan for the missns.

ENOLA GAY: MISSN TO HIROSHIMA KDLE EDN

Enola Gay, Regular Crew (Crew B-9). Enola Gay was flown by a modified Crew B-9 for the Hiroshima missn and Crew B-10 for the Nagasaki missn. Crew B-10 flew four bat missns, cludg the Hiroshima bombg missn which they flew  Necsary Evil and the Nagasaki bombg missn which they flew  Enola Gay.

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.

THE INLIBLE ENOLA GAY

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.

TAKE A TOUR OF THE ENOLA GAY, THE U.S. PLANE THAT BOMBED HIROSHIMA

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. 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. On Augt 6, 1945, the B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the cy of Hiroshima.

THE ENOLA GAY'S HISTORY LIV ON

"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.

"Nelson died om emphysema 2003 at age Gay tail gunner Bob Caron wrote a book about the missn lled Fire of a Thoand Suns.

ENOLA GAY AND HIROSHIMA

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.

THE ENOLA GAY'S HISTORY LIV ON

He was upset that manr Pl Tibbets had named his plane the Enola Gay. The strike plane rryg the Ltle Boy Atomic Bomb is Enola Gay, which is piloted by Col.

His job was to rerd the flight path of Enola Gay this log, which was provid to the Atomic Herage Foundatn by Clay Perks.

This document begs on 2:55am when Enola Gay tak off and ends on 2:58pm when they land back at the base Tian Island. The rear even be a passenger the Enola Gay, right alongsi famed pilot Pl Tibbets. If one has been able to vis the Smhsonian and see, person, the rtored Enola Gay, or walk on the whe sands of New Mexi, then that person will feel more ak to the people this remarkable today, there are arguments about whether or not Ameri should have ed the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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

Send, the Enola Gay and s crew ma a near perfect missn as attted to by the thor and General Lemay said the same at the time. 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. Tibbets and his crew took off om Tian  Enola Gay at 2:45 am on Augt 6, 1945.

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.

TAKE A TOUR OF THE ENOLA GAY, THE U.S. PLANE THAT BOMBED HIROSHIMA

” Enola Gay land back at Tian 12 hours later at approximately 3 pm.