And at 8:30 they got a coded message saying Hiroshima was covered with clouds. They climbed to 30,700 feet for their bombing altitude. Three hours after, they flew over Iwo Jima at dawn, where 5,500 Americans and 25,000 Japanese had died, so that the USAAF could use Iwo as an emergency landing field. They started their engines in Augat 2:30 AM. Its power matches up 20,000 tons of TNT or approximately as much as two thousand Superfortress aircrafts could take. At 0815, the atomic bomb, code-named Little Boy, a uranium bomb, exploded over Hiroshima with. The “Little Boy” atomic bomb is 12 feet long and 28 inches in diameter. It took six hours to fly the 2,000 miles to Hiroshima. In the afternoon of August 5, the Americans placed the bomb into the Enola Gay plane. Enola Gay Crew Plane B-29 World War 2 WWII 8 x 10 Photo Photograph Picture Picture. This gave him inspiration while he was building it. 5x7 Enola Gay Crew B-29 Bomber PHOTO,Dropped Atomic Bomb Little Boy. Paul Tibbet’s own aircraft decided to name it “Enola Gay” after his loving mother. They used it to target the cities of Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata and Nagasaki. The aircraft’s bombing is visual not radar. One of them is to measure the blast of the bomb, and one photo plane is assigned to be the standby plane and the primary plane.
Lewis co-pilot Enola Gays regularly assigned aircraft commander Major. There were seven Superfortress aircrafts, three of which were to scout in front. pilot and aircraft commander Captain Robert A. The strategies for the first atomic bombing were set in August 1945. dropped the first atomic bomb “Little Boy” in Hiroshima, Japan. It brought the first nuclear weapons used in the Pacific Theater war. The crew quarters are in the b29s pressurized compartments and the aircraft has highly developed armaments and avionics systems. In the early morning hours of August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber named Enola Gay took off from the island of Tinian and headed north by northwest toward Japan. His decorations include the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross and 15 Air Medals.The B-29 Enola Gay is the most complicated and propeller-driven bomber aircraft in the Second World War.
Van Kirk completed his military service in August 1946 with the rank of major.
#Enola gay plane mechanic crew skin
Arriving from its original air base in Omaha, its gleaming, polished aluminum skin nearly blinded him on. Paul Tibbets in front of the Enola GayUS Air Force photo) The Enola Gay Crew Airplane Crew Col. SPRING HILL John Bombara remembers seeing the war bird for the first time in late 1944. His skill and professionalism ensured the Enola Gay arrived at the drop point a mere 15 seconds after the initially planned time, quite an accomplishment given technological and logistical limitations during WWII. front of the restored Enola Gay, shaking hands and receiving the high regard of visitors.
6, the Enola Gay, crewed by Van Kirk, Tibbets and 10 others, dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima Van Kirk, a captain at the time, was only 24 years old. The 509th Composite Group was the predecessor to the 509th Bomb Wing, which is stationed at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri.īefore the mission over Japan, Tibbets told Van Kirk the group had been chosen for a top-secret bombing mission that might end the war. Theodore Van Kirk was a vital member of a historic unit, the unit from which the 509th Bomb Wing was born, and his contributions to American military history and to Allied victory in World War II will forever be remembered."Ī veteran of 58 World War II combat missions, Van Kirk was selected to be a member of the 509th Composite Group by the 509th's commander, Col.
#Enola gay plane mechanic crew archive
"Team Whiteman and the nation have lost a great patriot," said Brig. Archive identified to Enola Gay Assistant Flight Engineer Robert Shumard, incl. Theodore Van Kirk, the last surviving crew member of the Enola Gay, and the navigator on the famous B-29 Superfortress that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II, died Monday in Stone Mountain, Georgia.