Navy Seabees had constructed six runways, each measuring almost two miles in length, making Tinian the largest air base in the world. The route that the Enola Gay flew from Tinian Island, in the Marianas chain in the Pacific, to Hiroshima, in the southwest part of Honshu, Japan’s largest island, was more than 1,500 miles. It stands 27.8 feet tall, and has a Plexiglas nose and cockpit windows. Martin Company’s production line in Omaha, Nebraska. Today, the polished aluminum, 99-foot-long Enola Gay, with a wingspan of 141.3 feet, is as shiny as the day it came off the Glenn L. Specifically, about 7,200 pounds of armaments were removed, which Colonel Tibbets, commander of the 509th Composite Group, said would lessen the strain on the four-bladed- propeller-driven, 2,200 horsepower Curtiss-Wright engines. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly Virginia, near Dulles International Airport. “It was souped up and stripped down,” Art Hamilt, a guide and former naval aviator, told a small group of visitors in 2009, standing near the B-29 in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Air Force photoīut to make the Enola Gay, named for the mother of pilot Paul Tibbets, as light as possible to accommodate the weight of the 9,700-pound, uranium-enriched bomb, it had only two tail guns and no armor. takeoff on the historic flight to Hiroshima, Japan, when this photograph was taken on Tinian Island. Colonel Paul Tibbets was moments from his 2:45 a.m. Another technological advancement during World War II was that the B-29 was the first American plane equipped with two pressurized compartments, fore and aft, for its crew. Superfortresses coming off production lines in four American cities had as standard equipment five remote-controlled gun turrets, quite an innovation at the time, and armor plating.
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The four-engine B-29 Superfortress that dropped the world’s first atomic bomb used in warfare on August 6, 1945, was itself almost defenseless. The post-bombing message was sent to Brigadier General Thomas Farrell, Deputy Commanding General of the Manhattan Project, who was on Tinian Island, from where the Enola Gay had taken off about six hours earlier. Proceeding to base.” - Coded message sent by Captain William “Deak” Parsons, who armed the atomic bomb nicknamed “Little Boy” in flight, as the B-29 Enola Gay headed to its target: Hiroshima, Japan. Conditions normal in airplane following delivery. Successful in all aspects.Visible effects greater than Alamogordo. All rights reserved.įor a discussion of the second atomic bomb, dropped over Nagasaki, Japan, see my post from Augand for a lighter take on Nagasaki’s attractions, see August 15, 2016.
![ground crew of the enola gay ground crew of the enola gay](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2018/09/1024/512/enolagaycrew.jpg)
Since then, some work has been done to preserve the building and its steel skeletal dome.
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The people inside died instantly and the interior was destroyed by fire. Photo taken in the Marianas Islands of the ground crew of the B-29 bomber "Enola Gay," which dropped the "Little Boy" nuclear device on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945.The building in the center has become known as the “Atomic Bomb Dome.” Before the detonation of the atomic bomb on August 6, 1945, it was the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall. Tibbets stands with the ground crew in the center of the picture. PILOT PAUL TIBBETS WITH THE GROUND CREW OF THE "ENOLA GAY" B-29 BOMBER AIRCRAFT. Item: 162608732481 PAUL TIBBETS w/ GROUND CREW OF THE "ENOLA GAY" B-29 BOMBER - 8X10 PHOTO (ZZ-731). Ships to: AMERICAS & many other countries,