B-29 "Enola Gay" - 1/72 scale model

by Toys and Models

Product Features

• Handcarved Mahogany Wood Model Airplane
• Handcrafted and Handpainted
• Comes with base stand ready to display
• Comes with base stand ready for display

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 17 x 23.8 x 7 inches ; 4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B0006N1PXM
• Item model number: AB29ET
• Manufacturer recommended age: 12 years and up
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #483,658 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The B-29 Enola Gay is the most complicated and propeller-driven bomber aircraft in the Second World War. The crew quarters are in the b29's pressurized compartments and the aircraft has highly developed armaments and avionics systems. It brought the first nuclear weapons used in the Pacific Theater war. Colonel Paul W. Tibbets Jr. dropped the first atomic bomb “Little Boy” in Hiroshima, Japan. The strategies for the first atomic bombing were set in August 1945. There were seven Superfortress aircrafts, three of which were to scout in front. One of them is to measure the blast of the bomb, and one photo plane is assigned to be the standby plane and the primary plane. The aircraft’s bombing is visual not radar. They used it to target the cities of Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata and Nagasaki. Paul Tibbet’s own aircraft decided to name it “Enola Gay” after his loving mother. This gave him inspiration while he was building it. The Enola Gay allows 12 crewmen. In the afternoon of August 5, the Americans placed the bomb into the Enola Gay plane. The “Little Boy” atomic bomb is 12 feet long and 28 inches in diameter. Its power matches up 20,000 tons of TNT or approximately as much as two thousand Superfortress aircrafts could take. They started their engines in August 6, 1945 at 2:30 AM. Three hours after, they flew over Iwo Jima at dawn, where 5,500 Americans and 25,000 Japanese had died, so that the USAAF could use Iwo as an emergency landing field. They altered course and went northwest. They climbed to 30,700 feet for their bombing altitude. And at 8:30 they got a coded message saying Hiroshima was covered with clouds. At 9:15AM they dropped the "Little Boy" and made a 155 degree diving turn to the right.

Product Description

This collectible B-29 represents one of the most famous aircraft in history – the "Enola Gay," the Boeing B-29 Superfortress that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and helped speed the end of World War II. Painstakingly built from Philippine mahogany by our skilled craftsmen with a wealth of detail, this 1/72-scale model B-29 makes a great gift for any aviation enthusiast or history buff. The Enola Gay, assigned to the 393rd Bombardment Squadron of the 509th Composite Group, was one of 15 B-29s specially modified to carry nuclear weapons. Built under license by the Glenn L. Martin Company in Bellevue, Nebraska, B-29 number 44-86292 was personally selected off the assembly line by Col. Paul Tibbets on May 9, 1945. Tibbets, commander of the 509th Composite Group, had gathered top pilots, crews and maintenance personnel in Wendover, Utah to train for a top-secret mission. Under tight security, crews learned to drop a single bomb before pulling away in a 155-degree diving turn. The crews were not told about the nature of their mission – and questions were not welcome. The selection of Tibbets and the B-29 for the mission of dropping the first atomic bombs was no accident. Tibbets was regarded as one of the best pilots in the Army Air Forces, and as a squadron commander in the 97th Bomb Group, led the first heavy bomber raid of the Eighth Air Force in Europe. Completing more than 50 missions in Europe and the Mediterranean, Tibbets returned to the United States to become a project officer for the troubled B-29 project. In September 1944, Tibbets was tapped to lead what was to become the 509th Composite Group, and train the unit that would carry out one of the most famous combat missions of World War II. The Boeing B-29 was the most advanced and complex aircraft of the Second World War. It dwarfed other bombers, including its famous predecessor, the B-17 Flying Fortress. At 99 feet long, with a wing span of 141 feet, a B