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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. Tibbets Jr., the commander and pilot of the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in the final days of World War II, died. “People don’t realize how many times he flew aboard the Enola Gay,” Steven Lewis said. 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 name Enola itself is of unknown origin, being first used to name the protagonist of a novel back in 1886. The younger Lewis said his father recorded details of every flight he took, including the three dozen he made aboard the Enola Gay. Answer (1 of 4): Enola Gay Tibbets was the name of colonel Tibbet’s mother.
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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. 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. Lewis, a 27-year-old pilot from Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, logged a total of 36 flights aboard the Enola Gay, including the Aug.