Earlier this week, the Enola Gay, America's famous and controversial B-29 atomic bomber, was unveiled at the new National Air and Space Museum, in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles International Airport. The museum is scheduled to open in December 2003.

The Enola Gay dropped its nuclear payload on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, helping end WWII in August 1945. In the mid-1990s, the exhibition of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress's fuselage (without wings) at DC's Air and Space Museum caused a large controversy around the context in which the bombing was presented in accompanying signage.

Update - June 2004 - Dean Costello writes: "Be thee warned: While admission to all the Smithsonians is free, parking at the new Air and Space Museum is $12/car. "

This time the restoration will include the complete 141-ft. long, 100-ft. wide aircraft. The museum, which will include some 200 aircraft and 135 spacecraft in a hangar 10-stories tall, is near the intersection of Routes 28 and 50, south of the airport.

[08/22/2003]