Display of an identical B-29 Aircraft – Enola Gay

The Boeing B-29, the super fortress bomber was used against Japan in the Second World War. The B-29, which was known as the Enola Gay was responsible for the destruction of the city of Hiroshima, Japan during the World War II. The Enola Gay was the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb for its attack it targeted the city of Hiroshima and thus turned the city into ruins.

The Museum of Aviation has added a B-29 aircraft similar to the Enola Gay to it’s collection for public display. However, instead of the whole body of the aircraft B-29 only the cockpit is put on display. This exhibition enables museum visitors to have a closer look at the cockpit of a B-29.

The cockpit has panoramic windows which makes it easy for the visitors to see inside it. Because of this panoramic view the visitors can even see the switch which the Enola Gay bombardiers used when they had to drop the bomb. For so many years this B-29 cockpit was resting at this museum and it needed a lot of restoration work, the Macon.com reports.

It is Bob Denison, a volunteer at museum who started the restoration work of the cockpit six months ago and is now about to finish. In 1959 Bob Denison was a chief crew member on the last active B-29 squadron. Inside the cockpit there is not much space for two people to work together therefore, the entire work of restoring the cockpit has been done by Bob Denison himself. When Bob was a crew chief he was responsible for keeping the plane flying and his responsibility was also to know each and everything about the plane.

About this B-29 bomber he said, “it was a good airplane. The engines were junk, but the airplane itself was good”. When asked to the museum’s curator Mike Rowland about Bob he said, “we couldn’t do what we do without volunteers, and Bob has been tremendous.”

During the end of World War II this B-29 aircraft was brought into service. This B-29 was used for bombing Japan before it started drop atomic bomb over Japan. This bomber aircraft was enabled with pressurized cockpit where for the first time the crew members did not need to put on oxygen masks.

Ian Harvey

Ian Harvey is one of the authors writing for WAR HISTORY ONLINE