“I think the exhibit here is excellent,” he says. veteran of the Korean War, was touring the museum with his son. Lou Langone, a retired history teacher and a U.S.
In recent years, the plane has been restored, the outer aluminum skin polished to a brilliant shine. The Enola Gay, named after the mother of mission pilot Colonel Paul Tibbets, shares the main floor with other World War II aircraft. It is one among 81 aircraft in an aviation hanger 10-stories high that has room for even the largest, such as an Air France Concorde Jet and the Space Shuttle Enterprise. Now the plane that dropped the first ever atomic bomb, the Enola Gay, is on display at the National Air and Space Museum’s new center in Chantilly, Virginia. More than 230,000 people would lose their lives either directly or indirectly as a result of the two attacks. Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, and on August 15, Japan surrendered unconditionally. Air Force to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Fearful of the casualties a land invasion would entail, President Harry Truman ordered the U.S. VOA’s Serena Parker recently visited the exhibit and reports on the controversy.Īt the end of World War Two, with the Germans and Italians defeated, the Allies turned their attention to the Pacific, where Japan still was fighting fiercely. It recently flared up again when the plane that delivered the Hiroshima bomb went on display at the National Air and Space Museum outside Washington. President Harry Truman’s decision to use the A-bomb has been the subject of intense debate ever since. Soon after, Japan surrendered unconditionally. Three days later, the second destroyed Nagasaki. McDonnell Space hanger.On Augthe United States dropped the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The Smithsonian’s aerospace collection also will eventually be displayed in the 53,000 square foot James S. Other notable exhibits include the S-R 71 Blackbird, an American spy plane that still holds the record as the fastest plane ever built and the space shuttle Enterprise, which was used by NASA to test various concepts during the development of reusable spacecraft. The Enola Gay is one of 82 racers, gliders, helicopters, warplanes and airliners currently on display in the Smithsonian Institution’s nearly 294,000-square-foot aviation exhibit hanger. “The Hiroshima bomb started the whole nuclear age, that’s why I wanted to see it,” said Philip Wheaton, 78, of Takoma Park, Md. Udvar-Hazy Center said, however, they considered the Enola Gay an important part of aviation history. Some visitors at the opening of the Steven F. Japan surrendered unconditionally six days after the Nagasaki bombing. “If they want to show these planes, that’s fine but we can’t help but also demand that they show the damage and the stories that take place behind these weapons,” said Terumi Tanaka, 71, a survivor of the Nagasaki atomic bomb attack, which occurred three days after Hiroshima.Ī total of 230,000 people were killed in the two attacks. 6, 1945, by the Enola Gay on Hiroshima was not included in the exhibit. Several elderly atomic bomb survivors from Japan also expressed dismay that information on the effects of the bomb dropped Aug.
Siemer, 73, of Columbus, Ohio, was charged with felony destruction of property and loitering, while Gregory Wright of Hagerstown, Md., faced a misdemeanor loitering charge. Two men were arrested after security broke up the demonstration.
? A small group of protesters briefly disrupted the official opening of the National Air and Space Museum’s new annex at Dulles International Airport Monday, spilling a red liquid supposed to resemble blood near the Enola Gay exhibit and throwing an object that dented the airplane.