In the last seven years, Mikesh said, it has been treated with the latest mixture of chemicals, received a new glass nose and had authentic instruments and radio equipment restored. The Enola Gay, meanwhile, is tolerating the delay. Tibbets feels the State Department has deliberately blocked refurbishing of the Enola Gay in order to avoid offending Japan, but he says the Japanese understand the realities of war and have long ceased being sensitive about the bombing. Enola Gay flew as the advance weather reconnaissance aircraft that day. Air Force Museum near Dayton, Ohio) dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. Three says later, Bockscar (On display at the U.S. But that takes money, and Congress has been known to act at a glacial pace. On Augthe Martin-built B-29-45-MO dropped the first atomic weapon used in combat on Hiroshima, Japan. Museum near Dayton, Ohio) dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. Mikesh said plans are in the works to acquire land and build an auxiliary facility. The Enola Gay is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named after Enola Gay. Assembled, it would take up all of the Garber Facility's largest building.
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The Enola Gay is 96 feet long and has a 141-foot wingspan. We want to use permanent preservatives and do the job for 200 to 400 years.' His plane, the Enola Gay, is on permanent display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. 'Every time you assemble or disassemble something, you detract from its life span. 'We are not going to do anything until we know we will not have to disassemble the plane again,' he said. 'The airplane itself is only 78 years old.' Mikesh, curator of aircraft at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, in a telephone interview.
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'It wouldn't be wise to rush into something that might last 50 years, or a lifetime,' said Robert C. And they won't do it until a permanent home is ready for the plane. Rather than a hasty preservation job, they want one that will last. To Smithsonian officials, who reckon time in eons, the Enola Gay's 36 years in no-man's land is but a passing night. The Ohio House and Senate are being requested to pitch in and lobby for the restoration and recovery project. 'To me, storing the Enola Gay for 34 years is akin to moth-balling the Statue of Liberty or the first space capsule that landed on the moon, and then some three decades later saying we might do something about it in the next few years,' Ferguson said in a letter asking help from Ohio's 23 congressmen. He says it belongs in the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton alongside Bock's Car, the bomber which took the A-bomb to Nagasaki.
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Ferguson also believes the Enola Gay has been dealt a short hand. Linda Neuman Ezell, letter to Ben Nicks, December 9, 1988, NASM/MH.'If they ever wanted to do anything with the plane, it would have been done by now,' said Tibbets, lamenting the fact that vandals, souvenir hunters and weather took their toll on the Enola Gay when it was lodged outside at Andrews Air Force Base from 1959-62.
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5, 1988,” NASM/MH.īen Nicks, letter to Martin Harwit, December 3, 1988, NASM/MH. There are B52 and a B36 bombers as well as the mentioned B29. They have everything from Wright Flyers to Space Craft and ICBMs on display. It is on Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton Ohio.
ENOLA GAY WW2 DAYTON OHIO FULL
If you like war birds, plan to spend a full day at the USAF Museum in Dayton Ohio. Nicks, “The Enola Gay: Report to the Ninth Bomb Group Association and Resolution Calling for Its Speedy Restoration and Display,” October 13–16, 1988, NASM/MH.īen Nicks, letter to Martin Harwit, November 3, 1988, NASM/MH.īen Nicks, “ Enola Gay Restoration Committee Report-Nov. There is always lots of new things to see. Martin Harwit, letter to Ben Nicks, October 14, 1988, NASM/MH.īenjamin A. Nicks,” October 5, 1988, returned with a handwritten note by Bob, and dated the next day, NASM/MH. Martin Harwit to Bob Adams, Memorandum on “ Enola Gay letter from Mr. Linda Neuman Ezell, letter to Ben Nicks, October 6, 1988, NASM/MH. Mikesh, letter to Ben Nicks, June 24, 1988, NASM/MH.īen Nicks, letter to Jay P.