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By Jerry Schanke
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
The reassembled Enola Gay, the World War II B-29 Superfortress that ushered in the atomic age and arguably ended the war in the Pacific, was unveiled Monday morning in ceremonies at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles International Airport.
The closed event, which drew news media attention from around the world, including Japan, was focused on the monumental restoration of the 67-year-old bomber that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945.
Smithsonian Institution officials, led by the museum’s director, Gen. J.R, “Jack” Dailey, said the exhibit “will focus on the technical achievement.” Dailey said it would be “left to the individual to decide the context.”
Dailey said the Smithsonian had no interest in reawakening the controversy that surrounded display of the forward fuselage of the aircraft in 1995. That controversy revolved around the decision to drop the bomb, the casualties and the moral implications of atomic war.
The fuselage was displayed at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., from 1995 to 1998, until it became part of the larger restoration project.
Even in the massive UdvarHazy Center, which is 10 stories high and the length of three football fields, the Enola Gay is impressive. With a wingspan of 141 feet and a gross weight of 137,500 pounds, it is obviously too large and heavy to be displayed at the downtown museum.
The Enola Gay will ultimately be joined by nearly 200 other aircraft at the center and displayed among a group of other World War II American, British, German and Japanese aircraft. It will be raised on 8foot stands to allow smaller aircraft to be placed under its wings.
Enola Gay was named in honor of the mother of the aircraft’s commander, Col. Paul Tibbets, who flew the Hiroshima mission.
The Enola Gay returned to the U.S. in 1946 and was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 1949. Restoration began in 1984 and has consumed some 300,000 staff
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