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The next morning, when Tibbets arrived at the pasture, he couldn’t take his eyes off the Baby Ruth biplane. I won’t hurt myself, and I’m not going to hurt him.’ My old man reluctantly said ‘OK.'” Tibbets, I’m not going out there and kill myself, because I have a wife and two lovely daughters. “My old man looked at me and said, ‘Not you!’ Doug said, ‘Mr. “I volunteered right quick,” said Tibbets with a grin. Davis told the boy’s father that he would need somebody to throw the candy bars out of the front cockpit. He pitched in to help warehouse workers attach a small paper parachute to each candy bar. Yes, sometimes, a tailspin does make you dizzy. Young Tibbets fired off question after question, and eagerly listened to the answers: Yes, the aviator had looped the loop, many times.
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In 1978, Tibbets penned “The Tibbets Story” (updated as “Enola Gay” in 1998), recalling his excitement as Davis arrived in his Waco 9, wearing the typical barnstorming apparel of the day: leather jacket and helmet, whipcord breeches and goggles. When young Tibbets hear the plan, the only thing the 12-year-old could think of was being up in that biplane, throwing out those candy bars. “He sold Curtiss on the idea of dropping those candy bars from an airplane over large gatherings of people.” “He was an entrepreneur who was always trying to figure an angle for an airplane to play a part,” Tibbets recalled. Curtiss had a new candy bar, the “Baby Ruth,” and Doug Davis had a plan to promote it. His father, Paul Warfield Tibbets, owned a wholesale confectionary business and was the area distributor for Curtiss Candy. He hadn’t slept much the night before, thinking about what was ahead. 1, 2007, after months of failing health.Īs he reminisced, Tibbets recalled that it was a perfect day for his important mission. It was a “bombing run,” but it wasn’t the one most people equate with Tibbets’ name when they hear of the 92-year-old’s death, on Nov. talked to Airport Journals about one of the most momentous occasions in his life.