B-29 Superfortress
National Air And Space Museum
Washington, DC

B-29

B-29 Enola Gay on display in the National Air And Space Museum restoration facility in Silver Hills, Maryland. The primary restoration work had been completed at the time of this photo, and mostly exterior work and assembly work remained to be completed.

Enola Gay is one of the two atomic bombers, both of which still exist. After her military career, she sat outside at Andrews AFB in suburban Washington DC for many years. Weather and vandals took a tool on the aircraft. The NASM took control of the Enola Gay and moved her to Silver Hills, where she sat out of the public eye for years. She was then restored in the late 1980's and early 1990's.

In the mid-1990's, a wave of revisionist thinking took over the NASM, and plans were made to put the nose section of the Enola Gay on display as a centerpiece of an exhibit that painted the US as the aggressors in WWII, and the atomic bombing as a war crime. Public outrage squashed this plan and lead to the resignations of many NASM leaders. A new exhibit was put on, with just the nose of the B-29 and simple statement of the facts.

The Enola Gay was moved into the new Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center, the new NASM facility at Dullas Airport. She has been reassembled, and is now one of the centerpiece attractions at the Udvar-Hazy Center.

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Photo and text by John A. Weeks III, Copyright © 2005, all rights reserved.
For further information, contact: john@johnweeks.com
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