Here's a short piece I did for Aviation History Magazine that's about to be published:
BRIEFING: ENOLA GAY'S YOKE CAP...OR NOT
for Aviation History magazine
by Stephan Wilkinson
On April 12, the New York Times ran an article by writer and college lecturer Ted Gup, who reported that a young woman in one of his classes let him in on a family secret: her grandfather, Robert Rich, had copped Enola Gay's yoke cap--the horn button-like plastic centerpiece from the pilot's control wheel. Rich, stationed at Davis-Monthan Army Air Field in 1947, was prowling among the 600-odd B-29s then mothballed in the base's boneyard when he came across the unmistakable Enola Gay. Knowing the airplane's provenance and assuming it would soon be scrapped (it was in fact already scheduled to be shipped to the Smithsonian), Rich clambered up into the cockpit and liberated the Boeing-logoed yoke cap. He pocketed what he thought was a piece of history, and though he died in 1975, his family has it to this day.
As a result of the Times article, plans were soon afoot to donate it to the Smithsonian for return to its proper place aboard the NASM's treasured atomic bomber. "It's great when things you think are lost resurface," said NASM Chief Curator Peter Jakob.
But had the lost yoke cap indeed resurfaced? B-29 expert Trevor McIntyre heard about the Times story when somebody posted a link to it on the popular forum WIX--Warbird Information Exchange. "Wrong yoke cap," McIntyre pointed out, and he explained that Enola Gay had been built by Martin, not Boeing, and that its original yoke cap would have borne the Martin Aircraft logo as well as Boeing's. Boeing-built yoke caps read "Boeing" and "B-29." (Yet another set of B-29 yoke caps, aboard B-29s built by Bell, bore the Bell Aircraft identifier.)
Though family lore was doubtless true, what Robert Rich had liberated was an ordinary B-29 yoke cap that had been used as a replacement for the already-gone-missing original. Obviously, many who had access to the airplane were well aware of its historicity, and somebody beat Rich to it. Perhaps a member of the original crew, or a tech sergeant alone in the cockpit replacing a faulty gauge, or Paul Tibbetts himself. Whatever the case, the Martin cap is still out there.
At the urging of Aviation History, on May 3 the New York Times published a correction of the original article, admitting that they had "imprecisely described [the] cap." For more on an upcoming book by Trevor McIntyre, who would never imprecisely describe any part of a B-29, go to
www.motherandcountry.com.