Enola Gay navigator Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk, the last surviving crew member, died in Georgia in 2014. Robert Lewis died in Virginia in 1983, Tibbets in 2007 in Ohio. Japan surrendered six days later, ending the war. Three days after the Hiroshima bombing, another U.S. The B-29 bomber stayed airborne, hovering above a terrifying. 6, 1945, a city died, and 70,000 of its inhabitants. “People don’t realize how many times he flew aboard the Enola Gay,” Steven Lewis said. A fter the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. But Tibbets only flew the Enola Gay a couple of times, while Lewis had piloted the aircraft 16 times during test flights leading up to the Hiroshima mission. The move made Tibbets a household name after his crew completed the world’s first atomic bombing mission, which destroyed much of the Japanese city and killed tens of thousands of its citizens. Paul Tibbets was also the pilot of the Enola Gay, relegating the lower-ranked Lewis to co-pilot. “Any records of that mission would be significant.”Īs commander of the Hiroshima mission, Col. “The Enola Gay was the most significant aircraft of World War Two,” said Larry Starr, collections manager at the American Airpower Museum in Farmingdale, New York. “He wrote down everything and he kept everything,” said Steven Lewis, 57, of Hampton Township, New Jersey. The younger Lewis said his father recorded details of every flight he took, including the three dozen he made aboard the Enola Gay. The B-29 Superfortress lifted off Tinian Island at 2:45AM for the six and one half hour flight to Hiroshima.
THE FLIGHT OF THE ENOLA GAY ARCHIVE
The flight logs covering Lewis’ service in the Army Air Forces from 1942-46 are among an extensive archive of his documents handed down to his son, Steven Lewis. Tibbets, of the 509th Bomber Group and pilot of the Enola Gay, received his orders and in the early morning hours roared down a runway bound for Hiroshima.
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A meticulous record-keeper, Lewis’ handwritten entry in his personal flight log for that historic day reads: “No#1 Atomic bomb a huge success.” 6, 1945, bombing mission that changed the world.
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Lewis, a 27-year-old pilot from Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, logged a total of 36 flights aboard the Enola Gay, including the Aug.