![who was the co pilot of enola gay who was the co pilot of enola gay](https://c8.alamy.com/comp/TXG9R1/world-war-ii-paul-tibbets-standing-in-front-of-the-b-29-enola-gay-the-plane-he-piloted-to-hiroshima-and-dropped-the-worlds-first-atomic-bomb-on-5-august-1945-TXG9R1.jpg)
The entire story was written by Lewis just before his death in 1983. Lewis and his crew, minus their original co-pilot Dick McNamara, were Tibbets' crew for the mission, and it included two specialists for the arming of Little Boy, the uranium-235 fission bomb. Normally the aircraft commander assigned to the Enola Gay, for this important mission he acted as co-pilot and co-commander, assisting Enola Gay's new aircraft commander, Colonel Tibbets. On Aug– August 5 in the United States, due to the time difference – Lewis was the co-pilot of the Enola Gay when it dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima. In early June, Lewis and his co-pilot Dick McNamara flew the entire crew and support crew from Utah to Tinian, in the B-29 specially modified to carry Little Boy to Japan from the huge Tinian base that General LeMay controlled from Guam. Lewis led hundreds of bombing runs from Utah to Salton Sea in California leading up to his selection with his crew by Colonel Paul Tibbets. Articles from New York City area newspapers attested to his "cool head under stressful conditions", ultimately leading to his selection as captain of a B-29 crew. Lewis was always a "crew-first" pilot who survived two crashes due to electrical failure and engine failure.
![who was the co pilot of enola gay who was the co pilot of enola gay](https://www.manhattanprojectvoices.org/sites/default/files/unnamed.jpg)
Lewis tried to correct the general as to his rank, but LeMay insisted on captain, with the field commission arriving several weeks later by USAAF mail to him based in the midwestern US at the time. LeMay addressed Lieutenant Lewis as "Captain Lewis" on the field at the conclusion of several days of training and testing.
WHO WAS THE CO PILOT OF ENOLA GAY HOW TO
Lewis was field promoted to captain by General Curtis LeMay after demonstrating the B-29 and training the general on how to fly it. Lewis went on to be a multi-engine test pilot in B-24, B-26, B-17 and B-29 bombers, which later led to him as co-pilot and his crew being selected for the Hiroshima bombing mission. During World War II, he had to wait after enlisting to be processed into the USAAF Officer Candidate School (OCS). He grew up in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, where he attended Ridgefield Park High School, graduating in 1937. Robert Alvin Lewis was born on Octoin Brooklyn, New York. ( July 2017) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Please help to improve this section by introducing more precise citations. Enola Gay navigator Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk, the last surviving crew member, died in Georgia in 2014.This section includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. 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. “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 II,” said Larry Starr, collections manager at the American Airpower Museum in Farmingdale, N.Y.