While this exhibit is now closed, Museum specialists continued to restore the remaining components of the airplane, and after an additional nine years the fully assembled Enola Gay went on permanent display at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. The name has also appeared in literature, borne by a character also called Enola Gay in Martin Amis' black comic novel London Fields (1989). The exhibition text summarized the history and development of the Boeing B-29 fleet used in bombing raids against Japan.Īnother portion of the exhibit detailed the painstaking efforts of Smithsonian aircraft restoration specialists who had spent more than a decade restoring parts of the Enola Gay for this exhibition. The airplane was named after the pilot Paul Tibbets' mother, Enola Gay Tibbets, who was in turn named after the heroine of a novel. The components on display included two engines, the vertical stabilizer, an aileron, propellers, and the forward fuselage that contains the bomb bay.Ī video presentation about the Enola Gay's mission included interviews with the crew before and after the mission including mission pilot Col. The two B-29’s that dropped the Atomic bombs on Japan (following a final ultimatum to surrender that was ignored) were called Enola Gay (named after the pilot Colonel Paul Tibbets Mother) which dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945 and Bockscar (piloted by Major Charles W. It contained several major components of the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber used in the atomic mission that destroyed Hiroshima, Japan. It wasn't a B-52 it was a B-29 and it was called the Enola Gay, after the pilots mother, Enola Gay Tibbets.
Enola gay pilots name serial number#
Enola Gay is a model B-29-45-MO, serial number 44-86292.
![enola gay pilots name enola gay pilots name](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/150717141310-10-hiroshima-70th-anniversary-photos-restricted.jpg)
In the early morning hours, just prior to the August 6th mission, Tibbets had a young Army Air Forces maintenance man, Private Nelson Miller, paint the name just under the pilot's window. This past exhibition, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, told the story of the role of the Enola Gay in securing Japanese surrender. He named the B-29 that he flew on 6 August Enola Gay after his mother.