The pilot was Lieutenant (later Colonel) Robert Morgan of Asheville, North Carolina. The plane bristled with machine guns, but the plane’s punch came from its four-ton payload of 500- or 1,000-pound bombs.Įach B-17 carried a crew of 10, and this particular plane picked up hers in Bangor, Maine. Air Force - fought over what, and where, the best home for this historic warplane should be.īut first they had to decide who owned it.ī-17 #42-24485 rolled off the Boeing Aircraft Company assembly lines in Seattle on Jone of some 12,750 Flying Fortresses built during the war. And over the next dozen years, various groups - the Memphis Belle Memorial Association, which had worked so hard to restore and maintain the plane the Memphis Park Commission, which operated Mud Island and officials with the U.S. The date was May 17, 1987, and the theme of this event was “The Memphis Belle: Home at Last.” Well, not quite.Īlthough the white vinyl canopy stretched over a dome of steel beams offered the best environment for the aging warplane in almost half a century, it still didn’t fully protect it from the elements. The flyover was a salute to the most famous B-17 of them all - arguably the most famous airplane of World War II - the Memphis Belle, which had moved into a new pavilion on Mud Island. As they approached Mud Island, one plane’s bomb-bay doors opened, dropping thousands of rose petals onto the crowds below. The plane will be shipped in the original box.On a Sunday afternoon 26 years ago, seven B-17 bombers - the largest formation of Flying Fortresses since World War II - rumbled low over the Mississippi River. The title plate comes attached to a fine natural finished mahogany wood display base.
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Authentic colors, markings, movable propellers and separate hand applied metal detailing make this B-29 the finest 1/72 scale model available. This high quality Enola Gay replica is handcrafted and features all details possible in a 1/72 scale B-29 display model. The model comes with a certificate of Authentication (COA) from the Carolinas Aviation Museum. ALL other autographs are on the base, not the plane itself. What makes this signed B-29 different from all others is it is the only Enola Gay model that Van Kirk signed on the aircraft wing. Major Van Kirk signed this model at National Air & Space Museum's 2012 Mutual Concerns Conference in April, 2012. Van Kirk was the last living crew member of the Enola Gay and passed away in 2014 at the age of 93. His decorations include the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross and 15 Air Medals.
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In August, 1946 he completed his service in the Air Corps as a major.
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He was selected to fly General Mark Clark on a secret mission to negotiate with the Free French in Algeria and was navigator on the aircraft that flew General Dwight Eisenhower to the invasion site in North Africa to launch Operation Torch.
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Army Air Corps navigator who flew fifty-eight B-17 Flying Fortress combat missions with the 97th Bomb Group over occupied France and Germany during WW II.
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Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk was an American U.S. As navigator, Van Kirk was charged with the location positioning and dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The bomb, code-named "Little Boy", was targeted at the city of Hiroshima, Japan, and caused the near-complete destruction of the city. On August 6, 1945, during the final stages of World War II, piloted by Tibbets and navigated by Van Kirk it became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb. The Enola Gay was named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets. About Superbly detailed Enola Gay B-29 Boeing super fortress bomber model signed by navigator Dutch Van Kirk, circa 2000s.