Enola Gay B-29 Bomber Model Airplane Signed by Pilot Paul Tibbetts WW II

Superbly detailed Enola Gay B-29 Boeing super fortress bomber model signed by pilot, Paul Tibbetts, circa 2000s. The Enola Gay was named after Tibbets mother, Enola Gay Tibbets. On August 6, 1945, during the final stages of World War II, piloted by Tibbets and navigated by Dutch Van Kirk, the Enola Gay became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb. The bomb, code-named "Little Boy", was targeted at the city of Hiroshima, Japan, and caused the near-complete destruction of the city. As navigator, Van Kirk was charged with the location positioning and dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force. Tibbets enlisted in the United States Army in 1937 and qualified as a pilot in 1938. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he flew anti-submarine patrols over the Atlantic. In February 1942, he became the commanding officer of the 340th Bombardment Squadron of the 97th Bombardment Group, which was equipped with the Boeing B-17. In July 1942, the 97th became the first heavy bombardment group to be deployed as part of the Eighth Air Force, and Tibbets became deputy group commander. He flew the lead plane in the first American daylight heavy bomber mission against Occupied Europe on 17 August 1942, and the first American raid of more than 100 bombers in Europe on 9 October 1942. Tibbets was chosen to fly Major General Mark W. Clark and Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower to Gibraltar. After flying 43 combat missions, he became the assistant for bomber operations on the staff of the Twelfth Air Force. Tibbets returned to the United States in February 1943 to help with the development of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. In September 1944, he was appointed the commander of the 509th Composite Group, which would conduct the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the war, he participated in the Operation Crossroads nuclear weapon tests at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946, and was involved in the development of the Boeing B-47 Stratojet in the early 1950s. He commanded the 308th Bombardment Wing and 6th Air Division in the late 1950s, and was military attaché in India from 1964 to 1966. After leaving the Air Force in 1966, he worked for Executive Jet Aviation, serving on the founding board and as its president from 1976 until his retirement in 1987. He died on November 1, 2007 at the age of 92. The model comes with a certificate of Authentication (COA) from Danbury Mint...

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