The Enola Gay's History Liv On > U.S. Department of Defense > Blog

Contents:

• THE REAL MEANG BEHD THE NAME ENOLA GAY, THE PLANE THAT DROPPED THE FIRST ATOMIC BOMB
• ENOLA GAY: PERCHé SI CHIAMAVA Sì IL BOMBARDIERE CHE LPì HIROSHIMA
• WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENOLA GAY AFTER IT DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB
• THE ENOLA GAY'S HISTORY LIV ON
• THE INLIBLE ENOLA GAY
• CATEGORY:ENOLA GAY
• ENOLA GAY*: MEANG AND DEFN OF
• ENOLA GAY: WHAT EXACTLY WAS IT AND WHO USED IT?

THE REAL MEANG BEHD THE NAME ENOLA GAY, THE PLANE THAT DROPPED THE FIRST ATOMIC BOMB

However, several plane nam of the World War II-era are known exclively by their name, cludg the famo Enola Gay, a B-29 bomber that was ed to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan (via Branni).

ENOLA GAY: PERCHé SI CHIAMAVA Sì IL BOMBARDIERE CHE LPì HIROSHIMA

Yet the Enola Gay, another animate object, had a dark tentn — the vice was schled to drop an atomic bomb on an enemy target.

It's important to note that durg the war, not many plan which were mass-produced were given as much fanfare, so the Enola Gay stood out om the pack. Pilot Pl Tibbets nam Enola Gay.

On Augt 5, 1945, the 29-year-old Tibbets formally named his B-29 "Enola Gay" after his mother (née Haggard). The Enola Gay name liv on. In 1995, the Natnal Air and Space Mm hosted a ntroversial exhib of the Enola Gay to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of WWII.

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

The fully reassembled Enola Gay is now on display permanent display at the Natnal Air and Space Mm'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 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.

THE ENOLA GAY'S HISTORY LIV ON

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.

THE INLIBLE ENOLA GAY

William Parsons, who flew on the missn as the bomb specialist.And bee of that risk, the 10-foot-long “Ltle Boy” had not yet been armed.It 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 Man-Wts.This created cril mass and the explosive nuclear cha reactn that would lay waste to Hiroshima.The four cloth bags of explosive and the tonator would not be serted until the plane was the air.The Enola Gay was now dog 180 mph but was nng out of ground.Stg bi Tibbets, the -pilot, Capt.

(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 sequence.The bomb traveled for six and explod jt short of the bridge.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 blast.At 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. 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.

CATEGORY:ENOLA GAY

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.

ENOLA GAY*: MEANG AND DEFN OF

But even unr the ctody of the mm, the Enola Gay remaed at an air force base Texas.

ENOLA GAY: WHAT EXACTLY WAS IT AND WHO USED IT?

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.