The difference was the terrifying power that the new bomb displayed – but that was also the only reason the Imperial forces surrendered. The loss of life in Hiroshima was appalling – some 66,000 people many of them women and children – but it was much less than the 97,000 killed by incendiary bombs in the bombing of Tokyo. I don’t celebrate the dropping of the atomic bomb, but to portray it as some kind of war crime seems to me to be misguided. Fortunately, an outcry from veterans and the public stopped that presentation and the whole aircraft was restored and is now on display – but I think it is this queasy reluctance to face the role Enola Gay played in WW2 that lies behind the decision.įor me that reluctance is completely misplaced. It was left there until 1984 when the museum started a rebuild at a cost of over a million dollars.Įven then, only a portion of the aircraft’s fuselage was to be put on display – and was planned to appear alongside an exhibition that portrayed the bomb dropped on Hiroshima as an act of vengeance, and Enola Gay as a symbol of nuclear terror. During that time it was scavenged by trophy hunters and left to more or less rot, before being eventually taken apart and shifted into storage. I know the Enola Gay is on display at the Smithsonian, but it was only when I did some research that I found that after it was donated to them in 1953 it was simply abandoned outside for a decade. I think it comes down to something that I think is really sad.
Why wouldn’t you offer Enola Gay as an option? When Revell are trying to sell an expensive kit that is so hard to build and display, why wouldn’t they offer the option to build the most famous plane of that mark – and arguably the most famous individual plane of all time? There is a very nice set of decals for a couple of other aircraft – and it would build into a very nice example, but my guy wanted the Enola Gay – and in all honesty why wouldn’t you?Īnd that started me wondering. Unfortunately for me, Revell have decided not to offer the Enola Gay as one of the options in this kit. The mouldings are very thick, and from what I read online before building needed lots of adjustment and surgery to make it go together.
The kit is everything you expect of a kit from the 70s, with raised panel lines and the kind of dodgy fit that always comes with that. The fuselage is over 2 feet long, but the wingspan is almost 3 ft – that’s 650mm x 900mm if you’re that way inclined. I have built the old 1/72 Monogram XB-70 (reissued by Italeri) a few times – and that always seems huge, but this is just on another scale. The next thing you notice is the sheer size of the parts. The box is sturdy and the parts are nicely laid out – making it feel like something from Tamiya or Trumpeter – especially with the nice big pack of Eduard details that really promise a great result. When you open it, the first thing you notice is just how well packaged it all is. The box itself is big – so you feel you are really getting your money’s worth. The version I bought was the re-issue by Revell and comes with some really nice photo etch – both brass and beautifully printed cockpit parts. The kit was originally made by Monogram back in the 70s – which doesn’t tend to be a great starting point. When I started building models again as a (more or less) adult, the kit was high on my list – but difficult to get hold of – and although I loved the idea of building the huge 1/48 kit, I was painfully aware that I would also have to find somewhere to display it.įortunately, Dana in Alabama didn’t have a problem with space and wanted me to build it – so the adventure began! I always looked at the old 1/72 scale Airfix kit as a kid and wanted to build it – but the bare metal finish and greenhouse cockpit made it an ambitious build and a step too far for me then. I couldn’t believe my luck when a customer in America asked me not only to build the Enola Gay B-29 for him – but to build it in 1/48th scale!