2019 Summer Premium Live and Catalog Auction Lots 1-82 Close Aug 1- 83-end close 8/10
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/11/2019
Presented is an autographed model of the historic Enola Gay airplane that delivered the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945, signed by the plane’s pilot, Col. Paul Tibbets. The Enola Gay was a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Col. Paul Tibbets. It carried the first atomic bomb, code-named “Little Boy,” and participated in the second atomic attack as the weather reconnaissance aircraft for the primary target of Kokura, before clouds and drifting smoke resulted in the secondary target, Nagasaki, being bombed instead. Tibbets has signed “Paul Tibbets, Pilot” in black marker on the model’s base on a silver plaque below the plane’s name. The title plaque is made from the skin of a World War II B-29 Bomber, with three rivet holes on the left side. The replica plane is approximately 17 inches long with 11-inch wings and sits atop a metal bracket with a black plastic base. On the underside of the base is a legend, “Limited edition 931 of 3,000.” The plane’s replica propellers are intact in separate packaging. The item is accompanied by the original promotional and marketing materials from the Danbury Mint and the Franklin Mint. The original aircraft is preserved at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. This replica plane comes with a full LOA from PSA/DNA.