The Enola Gay, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in World War II, is so large that it couldn’t fit into the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s flagship location on the National Mall in Washington, DC.
Instead, it’s displayed at the museum’s second location, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.
The Udvar-Hazy Center features over 200 aircraft on display, but the Enola Gay remains one of the most prominent objects in its collection.
Take a closer look at the historic aircraft.
Enola Gay dropped the first-ever atomic bomb used in warfare on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.
A second “Fat Man” atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, by another Boeing B-29 Superfortress named Bockscar, which is on display at the National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.
The emperor of Japan announced the country’s surrender on August 15.
The plane was named after pilot Paul Tibbets’ mother, Enola Gay Tibbets.
Tibbets commanded the Air Force’s 509th Composite Group in charge of deploying nuclear weapons. The hand-picked squadron trained at an abandoned airfield in Windover, Utah.
The “Little Boy” atomic bomb deployed by the Enola Gay weighed 9,700 pounds.
To make the B-29 aircraft capable of carrying the atomic bomb, all of its protective and defensive armament, except for the 50-caliber tailguns, were removed to get rid of excess weight. It was also left unpainted, which saved the 850 pounds that the paint would have added.
The bomb exploded 1,900 feet above Hiroshima with devastating effects.
At least 70,000 people died in the initial blast from the bombing of Hiroshima, and the death toll over five years may have exceeded 200,000 people due to the aftereffects, according to the US Department of Energy’s Office of History and Heritage Resources.
Japan and anti-nuclear weapons scientists released an updated higher estimate in the 1970s that counted 140,000 deaths at Hiroshima.
The Enola Gay was rattled by shockwaves from the explosion, even as it had already flown 11.5 miles away.
After the Enola Gay spent decades in storage, the Smithsonian began restoration work on the bomber in 1984.
It took museum staff 300,000 hours to reassemble and restore the Enola Gay, with 12 truckloads transporting all of its parts.
The historical narratives around the use of the atomic bomb were fiercely debated when parts of the Enola Gay first went on display in 1995.
In 1995, the fuselage and other parts of the Enola Gay were displayed at the National Air and Space Museum’s flagship location in Washington, DC, in an exhibit tied to the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.
The script of the exhibit was rewritten several times as various interest groups debated how it was presented and how the decision to drop the bomb was framed, according to the Smithsonian Institution Archives.
Veterans’ groups pushed for the exhibit to emphasize Japanese aggression and present the narrative that dropping the atomic bomb saved lives by ending the war. Anti-war activists opposed having the exhibit justify the use of the bomb and sought to highlight its victims by protesting with alternative exhibits on the sidewalk outside the museum.
The Enola Gay went on permanent display at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in 2003.
Weighing 137,500 pounds with a wingspan of 141 feet, the fully assembled plane is too large for the National Air and Space Museum’s flagship location on the National Mall in Washington, DC. The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, offers more room with 340,000 square feet of exhibit space.
The Udvar-Hazy Center features an elevated walkway, allowing visitors to view the plane from above as well as on the ground.
The Enola Gay is displayed among other aircraft from World War II, including the Northrop P-61C Black Widow, the first US aircraft designed for combat at night.
The Enola Gay stands out as one of the museum’s most historically significant aircraft.
Over 80 years after the bombing of Hiroshima, the Enola Gay remains not just a World War II artifact, but a symbol of a turning point that ushered the world into the nuclear age.
After years of debate over how to present the aircraft, the permanent exhibition takes a minimalist approach, leaving visitors to decide how to understand its legacy.
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