Accuracy and attention to detail
I spotted a desktop model of the Enola Gay for sale but found the images in the advert troubling, not for the reason you may think.
The nose logo was in the wrong location and at a completely wrong angle, but despite having the correct registration number (82), the tail markings looked wrong.
My BA-eyes began itching.
It took me just two minutes to confirm the ‘correct’ mission livery is a prominent letter R in a circle, not a large arrow (in a circle) as depicted on the model. Furthermore, the red painted tip on the model's tail would have denoted membership of the 6th BG if displayed in conjunction with the R.
The 509th BG (the atomic bombardment unit) original livery was the forward arrow in a circle with a red tip on the tail, but to help conceal its "special purpose" between July and August 1945 other group markings were adopted. It lost the red tip when it received an R and once it got a new pilot it was named 'Enola Gay' (after the pilot's mother). It still retains the mission livery to this day.
I wanted to verify my preteen memories from fifty years back, I’m getting old and could be mistaken. I thought this was a fairly well-known aircraft so I checked some online galleries – Getty Images offered a huge selection of pictures, notated with descriptions and dates.
It was not that surprising to discover image suppliers attempting to cash in – one photographer proudly declared theirs was taken in August 1900. It wasn’t a date code default error, but the claimed date of the picture was two and a half years before the first powered flight by the Wright brothers at Kittyhawk in December 1903.
So, the accurate collectors’ model has the aircraft's name in the wrong location, combined with a nonsense set of tail markings. How many folk have been proudly displaying their example unaware of the glaring errors?
It led me to check out the competition online – at least I won’t be purchasing any models of the Enola Gay now that I’ve seen what is being pushed out to the public, some retail at over $200.
Always confirm things as best you can – never assume suppliers and vendors are making those checks. It is your reputation on the line once stuff reaches the public domain.
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It's 8:15
And that's the time that it's always been
领英推荐
We got your message on the radio
Conditions normal and you're coming home
Enola Gay
Is mother proud of Little Boy today?
Ah-ha, this kiss you give
It's never ever gonna fade away
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#musicislife ?- https://youtu.be/d5XJ2GiR6Bo?si=9VmN4aNbrXGb7V5f
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At 08:15 on the morning of 6th August 1945, the Japanese city of Hiroshima was devastated by the first atomic bomb to be used as a weapon of war. The bomb (nicknamed Little Boy) exploded some 1,800 feet above the city delivering the equivalent of around 12.5 kilotons of TNT. The bomb reduced 5 square miles of the city centre to ashes and caused the deaths of an estimated 120,000 people within the first four days following the blast. Many were instantly vaporised by the explosion, others died afterwards from the effects of burns and radiation.
Three days later, just after 11:00 on the morning of 9th August, a second atomic exploded above the city of Nagasaki, dropped from a B-29 named Bockscar. On 10th August the Japanese government indicated its readiness to accept defeat, subject to certain conditions. On 14th August it finally accepted the demand for unconditional surrender. The following day was declared `Victory over Japan’ or VJ Day, although it was not until 2nd September that the final Japanese surrender was signed, thereby bringing the Second World War to a formal close.
For further reading try a search for Alex Wellerstein who writes for the Bulletin (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists). The G-7 met in Hiroshima in May 2023 and the Bulletin republished one of his articles from three years earlier looking at the death toll from the atomic bombings.
The USAAF Boeing?B-29 Superfortress?that dropped that first bomb was nicknamed Enola Gay (named for the mother of its pilot). After two decades of restoration, begun in 1984, it was put on permanent display at the Smithsonian, National Air and Space Museum, in Virginia. It's housed in one of the two hangars at The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, which displays thousands of aviation and space artifacts, including the Space Shuttle Discovery, a Blackbird SR-71, and a Concorde.