In the wake of that decision I resigned as the museum's director and left the Smithsonian.". Michael Heyman, in office only four months at the time, scrapped the exhibit as requested, and promised to personally oversee a new display devoid of any historic context. In that, it was altogether different from the exhibition previously planned, 'The Last Act: The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II. The Institution's chief executive, Smithsonian Secretary I. The Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, finally went on display at the National Air and Space Museum June 28 in an exhibition that was aeronautical rather than political. The original, controversial exhibit script was. On August 30, 1946, the Enola Gay was placed in storage and never flew. The Smithsonian tnstitution, of which the National Air and Space Museum is a part, is heavily dependent on congressional funding. The aircraft was the primary artifact in an exhibition at the National Air and Space Museum from 1995 to 1998. Martin Company delivered the plane to the military on May 18, 1945. Fifty years later, the National Air and Space Museum was in the final stages of preparing an exhibition on the Enola Gay's historic mission when eighty-one members of Congress angrily demanded cancellation of the planned display and the resignation or dismissal of the museum's director. dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, 75 years ago, bringing an end to World War II and making the Enola Gay one of the most famous B-29s in history. World War II was over and a nuclear arms race had begun. No war had ever seen such instant devastation. There it exploded, destroying Hiroshima and eighty thousand of her citizens.
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For forty three seconds, the world's first atomic bomb plunged through six miles of clear air to its preset detonation altitude. World War II was over a At 8:15 A.M., August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay released her load. No war had ever seen such instant devastation. Udvar-Hazy Center, or the Dulles (International Airport) Annex of the National Air and Space Museum, was dedicated during a week-long gala celebration.
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For forty three seconds, the world's first atomic bomb plunged through six miles of clear air to its preset detonation altitude. Udvar-Hazy Center, the huge hangar-like building would display not only the complete Enola Gay, but 200 other aircraft and 135 spacecraft.
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Udvar-Hazy Center in December 2003.At 8:15 A.M., August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay released her load. 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 Enola Gay remained in service for several years before being given to the Smithsonian Institution on July 3, 1949. 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 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. It contained several major components of the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber used in the atomic mission that destroyed Hiroshima, Japan. 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.