ot, enola gay to fly again

if interested i just recieved a email, apparently nasa has been secretly restoring the historic plane for more than 10 years, and it is now airworthy and will be on tour this summer, afterword, at the last stop, it will be dissassembled in large pieces and put on a special train for its trip back to washington and into a muesum, which will also house the memphis belle [b17f] and other special planes, if you want the whole scedule, send me your email addy and ill send the whole article, the funny part of this is when the engines were test run back in 2001, ran 1 at a time over 4 concetive nites , apparently they shook the whole neighbor hood, nasa officals story was the racket was caused by a rented generator with a blown muffler, and people bought that, lol considering the enola gays engines are wright R3350's that must have been 1 huge generator lol

nothing like seeing old iron flying again, my email is [email protected] saw a B-17 fly at the galveston airplane musuem. you could ride it for $350, but thats too steep for me.

I haven't heard about this, and it seems highly improbable. The Enola Gay has been in the National Air and Space Museum for many years, first just the nose section (at the original museum in the Mall) and later the entire aircraft at the museum annex at Dulles. It seems highly unlikely that the Smithsonian would fly this important artifact, any more that they would fly any of their other aircraft, including the Spirit of St. Louis, the Hughes H-1 and the Wright Flyer.
Enola Gay at the Smithsonian

I seen a B 29 hanging from The roof at a Smithsonian museum 2 weeks ago. It said Enola Gay on the Fuselage. I was on a South Dakota Honor Flight with my 90 year old Father. Lots of older and newer war birds in that building. Anyway it would be nice to have the old Girl airworthy again.

i hope its legit, i plan to go see it myself, it will only be 500 miles from me, 500 miles isnt much out here,i can send you the article, and hopefully as the air show season opens there will be more press releases on it

Those old 3350's sound neat on start up with all the bangin and poppin. Heard them run many times on our WV 2's. Navy birds not Airfarce.

now y'all is dashing my hopes here lol i wanted to see this one, and traveling to washington is out if the question, i did get to see the b29 sentimental journey about 10 years ago at the air and space musem in airzona, and visited with one of the actual surviving air crew members who happend to be there, [ note this "sentimental journey" is a b-29, not the b17 owned by the CAF]

sent it to ya willy, let me know if you get it and if you think its legit, now im gettin worried here

Checked it out.I wish it wasn't a hoax but it is. Started out as an April fools joke apparently. Sorry

darn! they ought to not get a old mans hopes up like that pretty elaborate hoax

I rode in the Collins Foundation B-17 about four years ago, out of Ellington Field, which is now a Houston reliever airport. I was riding in the waist gunners area, which probably had the best view in the aircraft. Needless to say, it was quite an unforgetable experience.

I think FiFi is the ONLY airworthy B-29 left and I DO NOT know if that is currently true. I heard her fly over about 6 years ago and I think she was at 500 feet or higher. You could tell it WAS NOT a Normal? aircraft sound. Four 3350 have a sound of their own. The props were also in sync.

Kent

One of my ambitions is to get to the Annex at Dulles.

When we were visiting our daughter last fall, we had one day picked to go. But--I"d come down with a hellacious cold and sore throat and the morning we were to go to Dulles I didn"t have the ambition to go anywhere.

Next time for sure.

Do it. Lots to see there

Info on Fifi at the link.
Confederate Air Force

A couple of years ago I was attending a conference at the Galveston Botanical Gardens.

The air museum was near the hotel so took a tour of the air museum.

Stepped outside to see the B17 and was able to do a walk around inspection.

Lucky for me the "crew" was preparing to test the engines.

Sat on a bench and watched them start all four engines and run them at various RPM levels.

Looked good, sounded good, and felt good from the vibration.

<a href="http://s200.photobucket.com/albums/aa5/jameslloydhowell/?action=view&current=Crew-1.jpg" target="_blank"> </a>

Here's a photo of my dad's B17 named RHOMAR 2 and the crewmembers.

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.[7]

Critics of the exhibit, especially those of the American Legion and the Air Force Association[8], 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 (see the debate over the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki). As a result, after various failed attempts to revise the exhibit in order to meet the satisfaction of competing interest groups, the exhibit was canceled 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.


Under the cockpit window of the Enola Gay, while in storage 1987.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 Washington, D.C. As a result of the earlier controversy, the signage around the aircraft provides only the same succinct technical data as is provided for 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, which was the throwing of a jar of red paint onto the Enola Gay's wing. A video analytics system was installed in 2005. Multiple surveillance cameras automatically generate an alarm when any person or object approaches the aircraft.

The propellers that were used on the bombing mission were later shipped to Texas A&M University. One of these propellers was trimmed to 12½ ft for use in the university's Oran W. Nicks Low Speed Wind Tunnel. The lightweight aluminum variable pitch propeller is powered by a 1,250 kVA electric motor providing a windspeed up to 200 mph.[9]

I was out in the field a few years ago with nothing running and I heard an airplane sound getting louder. It was a very unusual deep rumbling motor noise. It passed over head, not very high and I could see the yellow tail. when I got back to the house I looked up B-29, and sure enough Fifi was touring the area and the schedule put her route right over me. What a sound. A once in a lifetime experience.

Hello sd pete: I gotta agree about the sound on startup. I wrote a museum about adding a place near their big recips so people can hear the sound... in sterio. I got 2 free tickets back saying they were going to do just that. If a person can't hear them running, it is like visiting the "dead." Another just as great sound is a Merlin Roll-Royce V-12 under load passing close by.. I got a great ride in a P-51 to do 5 simulated straffing dives from 5k AGL and the wind noise inside takes away most of that great sound.. but that's a tiny loss to take compared to the complete experiance of flying in one...
ag. (SW-Mn)

Oh i bet that was a fun ride!

went through & sat in the Memphis Belle back in the 60's when she was in Memphis...not near as big when you get inside as I thought....the 50's were still mounted in her but I could see where the bolts had been welded shut....made the hair stand up on the back of my neck...Kent

They should fly it over Japan, on the
anniversary of the day they dropped the bomb!
I also think that before she was retired they
should have slipped the Battleship Missouri
into Tokyo bay on the night before the
Anniversay of the signing of the Surrender
documents. And had the biggest U.S. flag
available flying to greet Tokyo, Awakining
to the dawns early light !