Part of the museum's congressional mandate includes "provid educational material for the historical study of aviation." The museum used this mandate some years ago to put on an exhibit of aviation in World War I that sought to demystify the myths that had built up around that air war. Dailey has said that the plane is being exhibited "in all of its glory as a magnificent technological achievement."ÿ 9 to honor military aviation veterans (see And Gen. Instead, it has decided to dissociate the display of the plane from its controversial mission and associate it with a "festive open house" that it is holding on Dec. The Air and Space Museum should be taking precautions not to treat the plane in a way that might celebrate it. Pacific Command, and former Director of the National Security Agency, said of the Enola Gay at a 1987 Smithsonian Research Advisory Committee meeting, "f we put that thing on exhibit, we cannot fail to give the impression that we somehow are glorifying that mission or taking pride in it." ÿ As Admiral Noel Gayler, former Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Visitors will also learn what the wingspan, length, height, weight, and speed of the plane is, among other technical details.ÿĭoes this really help people learn about the "unalterable significance" of the Enola Gay in World War II and human history? The museum's exhibit plans are at best an irresponsible way to display a plane with the most controversial mission in the history of war.
What will visitors looking at the plane in the museum's new $311 million annex learn? According to the museum's web site, the label next to the plane will tell visitors that the B-29 "was the most sophisticated propeller-driven bomber of World War II" that it was "the first bomber to house its crew in pressurized compartments" that the plane was designed to fight in Europe but "found its niche" in the Pacific, where it dropped a variety of weapons, including nuclear bombs that the Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb in combat on Hiroshima on Augthat Bockscar dropped a second atomic bomb that Bockscar is on display in Dayton, Ohio that the Enola Gay also flew as a reconnaissance aircraft on the Nagasaki mission and that the Great Artiste, another B-29, flew on both missions.
'Jack' Dailey said, 'Because of the work of some very talented men and women, future generations will sense first-hand the unalterable significance of this aircraft in World War II and human history. 18, press release from The National Air and Space Museum: "In presenting the reassembled Enola Gay, museum director Gen.