(For more on the Soviet copy of the B-29.) The Enola Gay The Martin assembly line in Omaha produced a total of 15 ―Silverplate‖ B-29s, specially modified for the atomic mission. In 1947, the Russians began flying the Tu-4 bomber, a reverse-engineered dead ringer for the B-29. Source: US Air Force Museum In 1944, three B-29s made emergency landings at Vladivostok and were ―interned‖ by the Russians. Performance figures varied with conditions, such as altitude, weight, aircraft configuration, etc. The Exhibit That Bombed: The Enola Gay Controversy and Contested Memory. After World War II, the B- 29 continued in service, flying its last combat mission- reconnaissance over North Korea-in July 1953. The B– 29 is most famous as the aircraft that delivered the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. From the Marianas, B-29s flew 16-hour round trip missions against Japan. It entered service in April 1944 in India, but came into its own when the Mariana Islands (Guam, Saipan, and Tinian)-1300 miles southeast of Tokyo-were captured in August 1944 and the Army Air Forces gained bases there. The B-29 was the only airplane with the range and other capabilities to conduct heavy bomber operations against the Japanese homeland. It was manufactured in four locations: Boeing plants in Renton, Wash., and Wichita, Kan., the Bell plant at Marietta, Ga., and the Martin plant in Omaha, Neb. The machine guns, except for two in the tail turret, were fired by remote control. The bomber remained at Andrews in outdoor storage until August 1960. The airplanes last flight ended on December 2 when the Enola Gay touched down at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland.
machine guns in five turrets, plus a 20 mm cannon in the tail. Although in Smithsonian custody, the aircraft remained stored at Pyote Air Force Base, Texas, between January 1952 and December 1953. It also had advanced propulsion, avionics, numerous innovations, such as pressurized crew compartments. The B-29, which began flight tests in September 1942, brought new advantages in speed, range, and bomb load. Work had begun in 1940 on a ―very heavy bomber‖ project, the outcome of which would be the B-29 Superfortress.
The cancellation set a worrying precedent for future debates in the US as it showed that some aspects of the nation’s history are beyond question and should not be challenged.AFA’s Enola Gay Controversy Archive Collection The Smithsonian and the Enola Gay From the Air Force Association’s Enola Gay Controversy archive collection Online at The Airplane The B-29 Aircraft In the early years of World War II, the Army Air Forces had two heavy bombers, the B-17 Flying Fortress and the B-24 Liberator. The eventual cancellation of the proposed exhibit should therefore be understood as indicative of far wider ideological battles in US culture. Instead, the culture wars have given rise to a new climate for debate, one in which personal conviction based on strong emotions far outweigh any well-reasoned argument based on logic and dispassionate research. The decision to drop the atom bomb, the secrecy surrounding the mission, and the men who flew it. With Billy Crystal, Kim Darby, Patrick Duffy, Gary Frank. Enola Gay at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museums Steven F. Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb: Directed by David Lowell Rich. This dissertation will argue that the controversy, as part of the wider culture wars, helped lead to a rejection of such notions as compromise and settling disputes through reasoned debate in American political and cultural discourse. Tibbets, pilot of the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. This dissertation therefore seeks to understand how the controversy related to, and had had an impact upon, other debates in the culture wars such as those surrounding provocative art, sexual orientation, and the teaching of history in US schools. The Enola Gay and the Smithsonian Institution OReilly, Charles T., Rooney, William A. Although this is certainly part of the story, there has been no serious attempt at establishing the location of the controversy within the wider cultural battles in the US.
The resulting dispute has traditionally been understood as a clash between commemorative and critical voices in the US. The controversy surrounded the preparations for an exhibit of the Enola Gay – the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima – at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the end of World War II.
This dissertation seeks to place the so-called Enola Gay controversy of 1994-5 into the wider context of the culture wars in the United States.