The Enola Gay, fully rtored and on view at the Smhsonian, left an lible mark
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THE INLIBLE ENOLA GAY
18) unveiled the newly reassembled Enola Gay, the Boeg B-29 Superfortrs ed to drop the first atomic bomb bat.
Rtoratn work on the Enola Gay began 1984 and volved a total of some 300, 000 staff airplane's forward and aft felage sectns, wgs, landg gear, eng, propellers and vertil stabilizer were brought together for the first time sce 1960 an arduo operatn this sprg and summer the Udvar-Hazy (pronounced OOD-var HAH-zee) Center's aviatn hangar. The airplane's ponents had been transported to the center earlier this year over a perd of weeks 12 tckloads om the mm's storage and prervatn facily Suland, a wgspan of 141 feet and a gross weight of 137, 500 pounds, the Enola Gay is too large and too heavy to be hoed tact the mm's flagship buildg on the Natnal Mall Washgton. In prentg the reassembled Enola Gay, mm director Gen.
INSI THE ENOLA GAY
Even Boeg logo ps om the perd were tracked down for the center of the pilot and -pilot's ntrol wheels for a plete rtoratn of the Enola Gay was built at the Glen L. B-29s also reprented the first succsful large-sle e of prsurized crew June 1945, the Enola Gay participated several flight trag and live bombg practice missns the Marianas. 6, 1945, the Enola Gay was ed to drop, om an altu of 31, 600 feet, the "Ltle Boy" atomic weapon, stroyg Hiroshima, Japan, at 8:16 a.
Days before the missn, Tibbets named the airplane "Enola Gay" honor of his mother. The war, the Enola Gay unrwent some modifitn for tts the Pacific to terme the effects of atomic weapons on naval ships but never took part the program. Begng December 1953, the Enola Gay was stored outdoors at Andrews Air Force Base Maryland.
In Augt 1960, the airplane was disassembled and s var ponents were taken to the Smhsonian's nearby storage facily June 1995, after much public bate over a proposed large, terpretive exhibn focg on the Enola Gay and the atomic bomb, the Smhsonian's Natnal Air and Space Mm opened a smaller exhib that clud display of the airplane's forward felage and landg gear, vertil stabilizer, two eng and an aileron. The exhibn attracted nearly four ln visors before closg May the Udvar-Hazy Center, the Enola Gay will be displayed among a group of World War II aircraft that clu a Brish Hawker Hurrine, a German Focke-Wulf FW 190A-8 and a Japane Aichi Seiran as well as well-known Amerin warplan like the Lockheed P-38J Lightng and the Republic P-47D Thunrbolt. A sgle airplane livered the new weapon of mass stctn—the Enola Gay.