Enola Gay is the name of bomber B-29 Superfortress that August 6 1945, shortly before the end of World War II , dropping Japanese city of Hiroshima the first atomic bomb in history to have been used in war, nicknamed Little Boy . Because of its role in atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki , his name has been synonymous with the controversy over the bombings themselves. In 1994
, the plane gained greater national attention in the United States when an exhibition of the Smithsonian Institution the National Air and Space Museum in Washington of was changed due to a dispute about the historical content of the exhibition.
L ' Enola Gay (B-29-45-MO, serial number 44-86292, victor number 82) was assigned to 393 Squadron bombers, USAAF 509th Composite Group and flew the mission of starting from August 6 Tinian, a large island with several airfields in the archipelago of the USAAF Mariana Islands. The plane was one of 15 B-29 with the last change " Silverplate " necessary to drop atomic bombs. L ' Enola Gay was built by Glenn L. Martin Company plant in Omaha ( Nebraska ), in what is now the Offutt Air Force Base , and personally selected by Colonel Paul Tibbets , commander of the 509th Composite Group, the May 9 1945, when he was still on the assembly line , such as the B-29 that was used for the mission of the release of the first atomic bomb. The aircraft was accepted
the USAAF May 18 1945, assigned to the crew and B-9 (Captain Robert Lewis, commander of the aircraft), who piloted the plane from Omaha to the base of 509 º Wendover Army Air Field, Utah in the 14 June 1945. Thirteen days after he left Wendover for Guam , where it was amended into the hold of the bombs, and went to Tinian on 6 July . The victor was awarded the number 12, which was later changed to 82. After completing eight training missions and two combat in July, the aircraft was used July 31 in a test of the mission itself, with a fake " Little Boy" which was dropped off Tinian. On August 5
1945, during preparations for the first atomic mission, Tibbets gave the aircraft the name of his mother, Enola Gay Tibbets (1893-1983, who bore the name of a heroine of a novel) . According Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts ( Enola Gay, Stein & Day Pub, 1977), regularly assigned aircraft commander, Robert Lewis, was unhappy about being outclassed by Tibbets for this important mission, and was furious when he came to the plane on the morning of August 6 and saw him painting with the new name. Tibbets himself, interviewed on Tinian later that day a war correspondent, he confessed to feeling a bit 'embarrassed to have associated the name of his mother in a mission so momentous.
mission on Hiroshima was described as a tactical point of view impeccable, el ' Enola Gay returned safely to its base of Tinian. The first atomic bombing was followed three days later by that of another B-29 ( Bockscar ) (piloted by Major Charles W. Sweeney ) who dropped a second nuclear device, '" Fat Man" on Nagasaki. The Nagasaki mission, by contrast, has been described as tactically wrong, even if it reached its objectives, went to meet a number of errors of execution and Bockscar was hardly the fuel needed for an emergency landing in Okinawa . On that occasion, the 'Enola Gay , piloted the B-10 (Ch George Marquardt, aircraft commander, see Necessary Evil for details of the crew) was the weather reconnaissance aircraft for Kokura.
History Next
The November 6, 1945 , Lewis brought the 'Enola Gay in the United States, landing at the new base of the 509th squadron Roswell Army Air Field, New Mexico , the ' November 8. The April 29, 1946 , the ' Enola Gay dropped Roswell as part of' Operation Crossroads and flew to Kwajalein the 1 May . It was chosen to test release to ' Atoll Bikini and left Kwajalein on 1 July , on the day of the test, and reached Fairfield-Suisun Army Air Field , California the next day .
The decision was made to preserve the aircraft and the July 24, 1946 Was moved to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona in order to prepare it for storage. On August 30 ownership of the aircraft was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution USAAF and was removed from the inventory, and since then it was stored temporarily in a number of positions:
- September 1, 1946 , Davis-Monthan AFB
- July 3, 1949 , Air Field Orchard Place, Park Ridge ( Illinois), driven here by Gen. Tibbets for acceptance by the Smithsonian.
- January 12, 1952, Pyote Air Force Base, Texas, moved after O'Hare's position was confirmed
- December 2, 1953 , Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland
- August 10, 1960, dismantling all'Andrews was initiated by staff of the Smithsonian
- July 21, 1961 , the components were transported to the deposit of the Smithsonian in Suitland ( Maryland). The restructuring began
definitely December 5, 1984 , the Centre for Preservation, Restoration Luggage and Paul E. Garber "in Suitland.
