Restoration of The Enola Gay [4 attachments]
Beautiful restoration of one of the most historic aircraft of all
time.
The Enola Gay has led a somewhat checkered life. It was dismantled in
1960 and finally put under cover and security at the Smithsonian's
Paul Garber facility. Until that time it sat at various storage sites
savaged by souvenir hunters, animals, and the weather. About 300,000
man-hours have gone into remedying that neglectful situation, plus
researching and undoing a bunch of modifications made to this B-29
after Tinian.
Now completely reassembled and proudly displayed at the new Udvar-Hazy
Museum at Dulles International Airport, Enola is externally complete.
Compared to today's jumbo aircraft it seems kinda small. A variety of
avionics and some panel restoration will continue over the next few
years... even though the public will not be allowed inside this
aircraft.
But happily the National Air & Space Museum is planning an interactive
virtual tour of the interior to be from the web. Take a look...
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