Paul Tibbets From Baby Ruth to Little Boy

Chapter 3 from "Flight of the Enola Gay" (1989) by USAF Brig. General Paul W. Tibbets ( born 2-23-1915; died 11-1-2007). Tibbets was pilot of the World War II B-29 bomber Enola Gay. The plane was named after Tibbets' mother. He was commander of the world's first nuclear strike force. Aboard the Enola Gay, Tibbets and his crew delivered the world's first atomic bomb - code name "Little Boy" - over Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945.

But this video illustrates Tibbets' first plane ride. He hitched aboard the Baby Ruth Flying Circus in Miami on a Waco-9 biplane piloted by World War I veteran and barnstormer Doug Davis. More from Tibbets on his choco-drop:

TARGET: HIALEAH
"Among the thousands who attended the races at Hialeah track one week in January 1927, there must be many still living who remember being bombarded each afternoon with candy bars dropped from a low-flying airplane. They would be surprised to learn at this late date, that the "bombardier" was a schoolboy who 18 years later, would pilot a real bomber to Hiroshima with a cargo of death instead of chocolates. As I look back on both events, I'm obliged to report that the mission to Hialeah was more exciting than the one to Hiroshima. There is nothing to match the thrill of a 12-year-old boy's first airplane ride. This was the golden age of aviation. The old biplanes with their fabric-covered wings, wooden propellers, and open cockpits were more exciting to watch and more thrilling to fly than today's limousine like aircraft, in which pilots and passengers occupy enclosed cabins and never feel the wind on their faces or hear the weird music of the piano wire that held the wings together. Like all barnstorming pilots of the twenties, Doug Davis wore a leather jacket, whipcord breeches, leather helmet, and goggles. I don't remember that his costume included a white silk scarf but, if not, it was his only shortcoming as a celebrated member of the barnstorming clan. Davis was under contract that year to the Curtiss Candy Company for the purpose of flying low over public gatherings, such as country fairs and horse races, and dropping Baby Ruth bars like manna from heaven on the people below. Before the year was over, he had introduced the new candy in this manner to the inhabitants of 40 states. The assignment brought him and his Waco 9 airplane to Miami, where he called upon my father, who was still operating his confectionery business. As Florida's principal distributor of Curtiss candy, dad became the contact for the pilot. I was in dad's office when Davis arrived and introduced himself. To say that I was excited would be an understatement. Here was an honest-to-God aviator, and what more could a kid ask than to see one of these heroic figures in the flesh?"

Category:

Education

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• Hiroshima
• Japan
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• Bomb
• Little
• Boy
• Paul
• Tibbets
• Enola
• Gay
• Doug
• Davis
• Baby
• Ruth
• Flying
• Circus
• Hialeah
• Park
• Racetrack
• Candy
• Drop

[Kolbgil1]

What's your favorite kind of cheese? Or if your British, your favourite kind of cheese, please?