The cockpit and nose section of the aircraft were exhibited at the In the 1980s, veterans groups engaged in a call for the Smithsonian to put the aircraft onĭisplay, leading to an acrimonious debate about exhibiting the aircraft without a proper Many years parked at air bases exposed to the weather and souvenir hunters, beforeīeing disassembled and transported to the Smithsonian's storage facility at Suitland, Later that year it was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution, and spent It was flown to Kwajalein for the OperationĬrossroads nuclear tests in the Pacific, but was not chosen to make the test drop atīikini Atoll. Clouds and drifting smoke resulted in NagasakiĪfter the war, the Enola Gay returned to the United States, where it was operated from Of Hiroshima, Japan, and caused unprecedented destruction.Įnola Gay participated in the second atomic attack as the weather reconnaissanceĪircraft for the primary target of Kokura. The bomb, code-named ' Little Boy ', was targeted at the city World War II, it became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb. On 6 August 1945, during the final stages of Paul Tibbets, who selected the aircraft while it was still on theĪssembly line. Named for Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Colonel The Enola Gay is a Boeing B-29 Super fortress bomber,
