The B-29 Enola Gay: Ending a War with Bombs

by Anne Rivera

The Flying Fortress B-17 of Boeing was used by the US Army in the 1930s as bomber planes to literally bring the US artillery up in the air, but it was not until the Superfortress B-29 Enola Gay was launched that the monsters of the air force began to creep out. Its speed, bomb capacity, firepower, strength, range and altitude capacity made the B-17 look like a toy. The B-29 Enola Gay was essentially every war enthusiast's dream -- that is, until it caused worldwide destruction.

An Aircraft that's the First of its Kind

The weapons engineers were so confident in what they were doing that they already established manufacturing facilities even before the prototype was made. The massive technology that went into the creation of the B-29 bomber Enola Gay was the first of its kind, and it went on to be used in more advanced technology in the following years such as the NASA space shuttle configurations. The Enola Gay B-29 was fashioned with heavy artillery, pressurized crew compartments, and a central electronic control for all its bombs and guns.

Bombing Japan with a Power that Shook the World

At that time, the B-29 Enola Gay was the nightmare of the enemy. It could carry 20,000 lbs of bombs and it could fly 5,830 miles at 40,000 feet at 365 mi/hr. It had 4 2,200 horsepower Wright Cyclone 18 turbocharged radial piston engine, making the aircraft weigh 70,140 lbs when empty and 124,000 during takeoff. For this reason, it was this aircraft that was used to bomb Japan in World War II, beginning the B-29 Enola Gay controversy that shook the world.

The B-29 was the first bomber aircraft to handle atomic bombs for the first and last time during the World War. They were first dropped on Hiroshima by Col. Paul Tibbetts, who named the aircraft after his mother, Enola Gay. The second one was dropped in Nagasaki by Major General Charles Sweeny. After the atomic bomb destruction, the B-29 is easily considered as the only plane to have successfully ended a war.

The B-29 Goes Down in History

The B-29 didn't retire after the World War. In fact, it was still used in the Korean War. The US dropped 200,000 tons of bombs on the lands of North Korea, after which they decided to retire the aircrafts. The B-29's were never used in any war thereafter, and out of the 3,970 aircrafts built, there is only one left that's still flying. Not to worry, however, because it's not being used for any form of warcraft. The Commemorative Air Force lets it fly once in a while as a part of its Ghost Squadron to remind them of the World War.

The National Air and Space Museum in Washington exhibited some parts of the B-29 Enola Gay in 1995, but was changed after some time due to the script that accompanied it. It was again restored in 2003 as a part of an exhibit at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center to go down in time as the only aircraft that ended a war.