The B-29 is one of 200 aircraft and another 135 space artifacts that will be on display at the museum’s companion facility, a 10-story, 760,000-square-foot aviation hangar in Chantilly that is able to house some of the museum’s largest artifacts. THE ENOLA GAY - outfitted with special engines and propellers and pneumatic bomb bay doors - has a wingspan of 141 feet and weighs 137,500 pounds, making it too large and heavy to be housed in the flagship National Air and Space Museum Building on the National Mall. “It’s the largest and most technologically advanced aircraft of its time.” “It’s a major artifact in our collection,” said Thomas Alison, chief of the Collections Division for the National Air and Space Museum. The aircraft is one of 35 B-29s remaining of the 4,000 that were built, one of which remains in condition to fly and three that are under restoration. On Monday, the museum unveiled the newly reassembled Boeing B-29 Superfortress aircraft used to drop the first atomic bomb in combat on Hiroshima, Japan on Aug. After 40 years of being dismantled and in storage, the Enola Gay is ready for display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center scheduled to open Dec.
