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During the summer the airfield is home to an outstanding historic air show, featuring a huge variety of civilian and military aircraft and the airshow includes performances from groups like the Heavy Metal Jet.
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"The people that were here had no idea what they were working on," says Sandy resident Jim Petersen, president of the Historic Wendover Airfield Foundation and director of aviation for Tooele County and Wendover Airport. The metal hanger built for the Enola Gay the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber which dropped the bomb on Hiroshima is still intact today. Paul Tibbets, the 509th's commander - knew the truth about that mission in the months the airmen were assembling and testing components, and dropping 150 bomb prototypes over the West Desert and California's Salton Sea. Up to 17,000 trained at Wendover at its peak, dwarfing what had been a railroad stop on the edge of Utah's West Desert.įewer than 4,000 airmen were training here, though, by the time the unit that would become Wendover's most famous gathered in spring 1945 - the 509th Composite Group with a super-secret mission. Damage was estimated at US1.5 million by Colonel Ray Harris, commanding officer, Ogden Air Technical Command. (The Man Who Dropped The Bomb On) Hiroshima (Rod MacDonald) Downloadable Video. An experienced pilot in World War II, he reported to Colorado Springs in Septebmer, 1944, for a top secret assignment - to organize a bombardment group to deliver the atomic bomb.
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Thousands of airmen learned to fly heavy bombers during World War II at Wendover Army Air Base, which was authorized by a Congress anticipating war and became a sprawling base with 668 buildings after the Dec. A fast-moving fire on the night of 6 July 1946 destroyed a hangar and seven buildings, described as 'mobile-type, wooden structures', as well as six training planes, before it was brought under control. The B-29 'Enola Gay' at the Udvar-Hazy Center (Airplanes Online Staff Photo) Paul Tibbets was born February 23, 1915, son of Enola Gay and Paul Warfield Tibbets.