Tibbets himself, interviewed on Tinian later that day by war correspondents, confessed that he was a bit embarrassed at having attached his mother's name to such a fateful mission. According to Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts, regularly assigned aircraft commander Robert Lewis was unhappy to be displaced by Tibbets for this important mission, and became furious when he arrived at the aircraft on the morning of 6 August to see it painted with the now famous nose art. On 5 August 1945, during preparation for the first atomic mission, pilot Colonel Paul Tibbets who assumed command of the aircraft, named the B-29 aircraft after his mother, Enola Gay Tibbets (1893–1983), who had been named for the heroine of a novel. It is in its 6th BG livery, victor number 82 visible on fuselage just forward of the tail fin. Unlike the six U-235 target discs, which were later flown to Tinian on three separate aircraft arriving 28 and 29 July, the assembled projectile with the nine U-235 rings installed was shipped in a single lead-lined steel container weighing that was securely locked to brackets welded to the deck of Captain Charles McVay’s quarters.Both the L-11 and projectile were dropped off at Tinian on 26 July 1945.Įnola Gay returning from it's Hiroshima mission, entering hard-stand. The partially-assembled Little Boy combat weapon L-11 was contained inside a 41” x 47” x 138” wood crate weighing that was secured to the deck of the USS Indianapolis. During July of that year, after the bomber flew eight training missions and two combat missions to drop pumpkin bombs on industrial targets at Kobe and Nagoya, Enola Gay was used on 31 July on a rehearsal flight for the actual mission. It was originally given the Victor (squadron-assigned identification) number "12," but on 1 August, was given the circle R tail markings of the 6th Bomb Group as a security measure and had its Victor changed to "82" to avoid misidentification with actual 6th BG aircraft. Thirteen days later, the aircraft left Wendover for Guam, where it received a bomb bay modification and flew to North Field, Tinian on 6 July. Lewis, aircraft commander) took delivery of the bomber and flew it from Omaha to the 509th's base at Wendover Army Air Field, Utah on 14 June 1945. The aircraft was accepted by the USAAF on and assigned to the 393d Bombardment Squadron, Heavy, 509th Composite Group. Tibbets, Jr., commander of the 509th Composite Group, on May 9, 1945, while still on the assembly line. Enola Gay was personally selected by Colonel Paul W. Martin Company (now Lockheed Martin) at its Bellevue, Nebraska, plant, at what is now known as Offutt Air Force Base, and was one of 15 B-29s with the " Silverplate" modifications necessary to deliver atomic weapons, which included an extensively modified bomb bay with pneumatic doors, special propellors, modified engines and the deletion of protective armor and gun turrets.
#ENOLA GAY PLANE MECHANIC CREW SERIAL NUMBER#
The Enola Gay ( B-29-45-MO, AAF Serial Number 44-86292, Victor number 82) was built by the Glenn L. Since 2003, the entire restored B-29 has been on display at NASM's Steven F. The exhibit was changed due to a controversy over original historical script displayed with the aircraft. The Enola Gay gained additional attention in 1995 when the cockpit and nose section of the aircraft were exhibited during the bombing's 50th anniversary at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution in downtown Washington, D.C. The bomb, code-named " Little Boy", was targeted at the city of Hiroshima, Japan, and caused extensive destruction. On 6 August 1945, during the final stages of World War II, it became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb as a weapon of war.
It is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named after Enola Gay Tibbets, mother of the pilot, then- Colonel (later Brigadier General) Paul Tibbets. National Air and Space Museum / Paul Garber Restoration and Storage Facility, Maryland.
The B-29 known as ENOLA GAY is a Silverplate" (atomic bomb carrier) conversion.