In the wake of that decision I resigned as the museum's director and left the Smithsonian. Michael Heyman, in office only four months at the time, scrapped the exhibit as requested, and promised to personally oversee a new display devoid of any historic context.
The Institution's chief executive, Smithsonian Secretary I. The Smithsonian tnstitution, of which the National Air and Space Museum is a part, is heavily dependent on congressional funding. The Enola Gay was on its long flight back to its Pacific island base when co-pilot Captain Robert Lewis opened his log and scribbled down the many questions racing through his mind.
Fifty years later, the National Air and Space Museum was in the final stages of preparing an exhibition on the Enola Gay's historic mission when eighty-one members of Congress angrily demanded cancellation of the planned display and the resignation or dismissal of the museum's director. World War II was over and a nuclear arms race had begun. No war had ever seen such instant devastation. Committee for a National Discussion of Nuclear History and Current Policy Statement of Principles. Witts explain that an alcoholic pilot of a weather plane later did blame his. Ten miles and two minutes from their destination the. over the content of the Smithsonians 1995 Enola Gay exhibit commemorating. Now the sole survivor of the crew, how does he live. The seventh and most important aircraft was one named the Enola Gay, in honor of the mother of its pilot. There it exploded, destroying Hiroshima and eighty thousand of her citizens. Theodore Van Kirk was the navigator aboard the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima 65 years ago. Thomas Wilson Ferebee was the Bombardier aboard the Enola Gay. For forty three seconds, the world's first atomic bomb plunged through six miles of clear air to its preset detonation altitude. Answer (1 of 8): This is such a popular question I have combined my research into one boilerplate answer and post it every time someone asks about the crew.
At 8:15 A.M., August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay released her load.