 Enola Gay remained at Suitland for many years . By the early 1980s , two veterans of the 509th , Don <unk> and his former navigator in the 509th , Frank B. Stewart , began lobbying for the aircraft to be restored and put on display . They enlisted Tibbets and Senator Barry Goldwater in their campaign . In 1983 , Walter Boyne , a former B @-@ 52 pilot with the Strategic Air Command , became director of the National Air and Space Museum , and he made the Enola Gay 's restoration a priority . Looking at the aircraft , Tibbets recalled , was a " sad meeting . [ My ] fond memories , and I don 't mean the dropping of the bomb , were the numerous occasions I flew the airplane .... I pushed it very , very hard and it never failed me .... It was probably the most beautiful piece of machinery that any pilot ever flew . " 
