Aviation images from APG Photography
738 total photos Last updated on 01-06-2009
Is this the ACTUAL plane that dropped "the bomb"?
Yes this is 'the' Enola Gay
Quoting from Wikipedia :
Recent developments.
Enola Gay became the center of a controversy at the Smithsonian Institution in 1994, when the museum put its fuselage on display as part of an exhibit commemorating the 50th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The exhibit, "The Crossroads: The End of World War II, the Atomic Bomb and the Cold War", was drafted by the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum and arranged around the restored Enola Gay.
Critics of the exhibit, especially those of the American Legion and the Air Force Association, charged that the exhibit focused too much attention on the Japanese casualties inflicted by the nuclear bomb, rather than on the motivations for the bombing or the discussion of the bomb's role in ending the World War II conflict with Japan. The exhibit brought to national attention many long-standing academic and political issues related to retrospective views of the bombings. As a result, after various attempts to revise the exhibit in order to meet the satisfaction of competing interest groups had failed, the exhibit was cancelled on 30 January 1995, though the fuselage did go on display. On 18 May 1998, the fuselage was returned to the Garber Facility for final restoration.
The entire aircraft has since been restored for static display and is currently a major permanent exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles International Airport outside of Washington, D.C. As a result of the earlier controversy, the signage around the aircraft provides only the same succinct technical data as other aircraft in the museum, without discussion of the controversial issues.
The aircraft is shielded by various means to prevent a repetition of the vandalism which was attempted against it when it was first placed on display. A video analytics system was installed in 2005. Multiple surveillance cameras automatically generate an alarm when any person or object approaches the aircraft