Mike Irwin
Member
From Reuters....
"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It carried the most destructive weapon of World War II and now the Enola Gay, the aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, is going on display at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum.
The reassembled B-29 Superfortress was unveiled to the media on Monday in a hangar near Dulles International Airport at the museum's new annex which opens on Dec. 15.
"This airplane is a part of our history and it is a part of who we are," said Dik Daso, curator of the aeronautics division of the museum.
"First Atomic Bomb, Hiroshima, Aug. 6, 1945," are written on the side of the shiny aircraft, with its transparent cockpit nose and defensive machine guns strutting out of the tail.
The Enola Gay unleashed an atomic bomb nicknamed "Little Boy," on the Japanese port city of Hiroshima, killing more than 140,000 people and leaving tens of thousands disfigured and suffering from lingering radiation illness.
The pneumatic doors to the "bomb bay" that once held the atomic weapon were swung open for television cameras but Daso said a decision had not been made on whether to leave them open when the plane goes on public view.
The bombing was carried out on a sunny day at 8:15 a.m. from an altitude of 31,600 feet. The Enola Gay was then used as the advance weather reconnaissance aircraft for the follow-up attack on Nagasaki that killed 70,000 people. Six days after that, Japan surrendered.
Nearly a decade ago, an exhibit in Washington about the atomic bomb and the Enola Gay -- named after the pilot's mother -- was met with a storm of controversy because many U.S. veterans felt the Japanese were cast as victims of U.S. aggression. A smaller, less interpretive exhibit finally opened several months later.
NO DETAILS OF CASUALTIES
The current text for the Enola Gay exhibit does not include casualty figures from Hiroshima or show any photographs of the devastation the bomb caused.
Daso told Reuters that death toll estimates varied widely and the exhibition space did not lend itself to a complicated display including details of the human cost.
"Our role is to provide, artifact and restore it (the Enola Gay) as best we can and allow people to come to see it and let it speak to them. They can come up with what it means to them. I don't need to tell them," said Daso.
The Air Force Association, which took up the cause a decade ago for veterans, said it approved of the new exhibit.
"We believe that it is historically accurate this time and we congratulate the Air and Space Museum," said Napoleon Byars of the association.
However, Japanese-American researcher Aiko Herzig said she had hoped scenes of the human impact could have been included.
"I have no objections to the Enola Gay being reassembled but to see an aircraft without the story behind it is a waste of time. We need to remind ourselves about how terrible nuclear weapons are," said Herzig.
With a wingspan of 141 feet and a gross weight of 137,500 pounds, the Enola Gay was too large and heavy to be housed at the museum's flagship building on the National Mall.
The museum has spent more than 300,000 staff hours restoring the Enola Gay, which was one of 15 B-29s modified specifically for the secret atomic bomb missions.
The planes were fitted with special engines, propellers and faster-acting bomb bay doors. They were also the first successful large-scale use of pressurized crew compartments.
The plane was donated to the Smithsonian in 1949 and was stored at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland for a while before being disassembled in 1960 and its components taken to the Smithsonian's giant storage facility in nearby Suitland.
"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It carried the most destructive weapon of World War II and now the Enola Gay, the aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, is going on display at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum.
The reassembled B-29 Superfortress was unveiled to the media on Monday in a hangar near Dulles International Airport at the museum's new annex which opens on Dec. 15.
"This airplane is a part of our history and it is a part of who we are," said Dik Daso, curator of the aeronautics division of the museum.
"First Atomic Bomb, Hiroshima, Aug. 6, 1945," are written on the side of the shiny aircraft, with its transparent cockpit nose and defensive machine guns strutting out of the tail.
The Enola Gay unleashed an atomic bomb nicknamed "Little Boy," on the Japanese port city of Hiroshima, killing more than 140,000 people and leaving tens of thousands disfigured and suffering from lingering radiation illness.
The pneumatic doors to the "bomb bay" that once held the atomic weapon were swung open for television cameras but Daso said a decision had not been made on whether to leave them open when the plane goes on public view.
The bombing was carried out on a sunny day at 8:15 a.m. from an altitude of 31,600 feet. The Enola Gay was then used as the advance weather reconnaissance aircraft for the follow-up attack on Nagasaki that killed 70,000 people. Six days after that, Japan surrendered.
Nearly a decade ago, an exhibit in Washington about the atomic bomb and the Enola Gay -- named after the pilot's mother -- was met with a storm of controversy because many U.S. veterans felt the Japanese were cast as victims of U.S. aggression. A smaller, less interpretive exhibit finally opened several months later.
NO DETAILS OF CASUALTIES
The current text for the Enola Gay exhibit does not include casualty figures from Hiroshima or show any photographs of the devastation the bomb caused.
Daso told Reuters that death toll estimates varied widely and the exhibition space did not lend itself to a complicated display including details of the human cost.
"Our role is to provide, artifact and restore it (the Enola Gay) as best we can and allow people to come to see it and let it speak to them. They can come up with what it means to them. I don't need to tell them," said Daso.
The Air Force Association, which took up the cause a decade ago for veterans, said it approved of the new exhibit.
"We believe that it is historically accurate this time and we congratulate the Air and Space Museum," said Napoleon Byars of the association.
However, Japanese-American researcher Aiko Herzig said she had hoped scenes of the human impact could have been included.
"I have no objections to the Enola Gay being reassembled but to see an aircraft without the story behind it is a waste of time. We need to remind ourselves about how terrible nuclear weapons are," said Herzig.
With a wingspan of 141 feet and a gross weight of 137,500 pounds, the Enola Gay was too large and heavy to be housed at the museum's flagship building on the National Mall.
The museum has spent more than 300,000 staff hours restoring the Enola Gay, which was one of 15 B-29s modified specifically for the secret atomic bomb missions.
The planes were fitted with special engines, propellers and faster-acting bomb bay doors. They were also the first successful large-scale use of pressurized crew compartments.
The plane was donated to the Smithsonian in 1949 and was stored at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland for a while before being disassembled in 1960 and its components taken to the Smithsonian's giant storage facility in nearby Suitland.
ing LOVE the concept that there's something intrinsically MORE moral about killing more people in a "traditional" and non radioactive manner than there is in killing them instantly. 