HAUNTED PLANE: B-29 Bomber "Bockscar"
Location:
Air Power Gallery - Lots of WW 2 planes, photos & exhibits of a variety of
occurrences, including the story of the Philippine Death March, life in a POW
camp, The Flying Tigers story, uniforms of all the services, heroes, and campaigns,
and other artifacts too numerous to mention.
DESCRIPTION & HISTORY:
Named after its original pilot, Frederick Bock, the B-29 Bomber, "Bockscar"
was the plane which was used to drop the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. "Bockscar"
became the first and only aircraft to effectively end a world war.
B-29
Bomber -was the heaviest production aircraft built up to that time, would be the
first to have pressurized crew compartments, centralized and computerized fire
control, the capacity to carry up to a 20,000 pound bomb load, or the ability
to fly 5,830 miles, with a top airspeed of 365 miles per hour. Paradoxically,
although the B-29 was designed to be a high-altitude weapons platform, its greatest
WW II successes were accomplished at low-altitude, in the fire-bombing of Japan.
Eventually, the B-29 became the first combat aircraft to carry and drop
atomic bombs, first on Hiroshima (by "Enola Gay" commanded by Capt. Robert Lewis
and Col. Paul Tibbetts), then Nagasaki (commanded by Maj. Charles Sweeny).
HISTORY
OF MANIFESTATIONS:
The dropping of the atomic
bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, wiped out the city's population but saved lives in the
long run as it stopped the Japanese war machine in its tracks and brought Japan's
ruler and support team to the peace table to sign surrender papers.
MANIFESTATIONS:
Guards have seen an apparition of a little Japanese boy standing by the B-29
Bomber "Bockscar," whose spirit somehow attached itself to the plane.
STILL
HAUNTED?
Yes indeed.
When people die quickly,
they sometimes have a hard time going to the other side because they weren't ready
to die, or are so traumatized by their own death, they stick around things which
are familiar, looking for answers. An American plane would be a natural attraction
to a little boy, perhaps who wanted to be a pilot himself. He perhaps can't understand
why such a bomb was dropped on his city from this plane, causing his death.
