Lewis, 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 United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) on and assigned to the 393d Bombardment Squadron, Heavy, 509th Composite Group. Tibbets, Jr., the commander of the 509th Composite Group, on, while still on the assembly line. It is in its 6th Bombardment Group livery, with victor number 82 visible on fuselage just forward of the tail fin.Įnola Gay was personally selected by Colonel Paul W. Įnola Gay after Hiroshima mission, entering hard-stand. These modifications included an extensively modified bomb bay with pneumatic doors and British bomb attachment and release systems, reversible pitch propellers that gave more braking power on landing, improved engines with fuel injection and better cooling, and the removal of protective armor and gun turrets. The bomber was one of 15 B-29s with the " Silverplate" modifications necessary to deliver atomic weapons. Martin Company (now Lockheed Martin) at its Bellevue, Nebraska plant, located at what is now known as Offutt Air Force Base.
WHERE DID ENOLA GAY TAKE OFF SERIAL NUMBER
The Enola Gay (Model number B-29-45-MO, 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 cockpit and nose section of the aircraft were exhibited at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in downtown Washington, D.C., for the bombing's 50th anniversary in 1995, amid a storm of controversy. In the 1980s, veterans groups began agitating for the Smithsonian to put the aircraft on display. Later that year it was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution, and spent many years parked at air bases exposed to the weather and souvenir hunters, before being disassembled and transported to the Smithsonian's storage facility at Suitland, Maryland, in 1961. It was flown to Kwajalein for the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests in the Pacific, but was not chosen to make the test drop at Bikini Atoll. Clouds and drifting smoke resulted in Nagasaki being bombed instead.Īfter the war, the Enola Gay returned to the United States, where it was operated from Roswell Army Air Field, New Mexico. Enola Gay participated in the second atomic attack as the weather reconnaissance aircraft for the primary target of Kokura. The bomb, code-named " Little Boy", was targeted at the city of Hiroshima, Japan, and caused unprecedented destruction. On 6 August 1945, during the final stages of World War II, it became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb. The Enola Gay is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named for Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets, who selected the aircraft while it was still on the assembly line. National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Colonel Paul Tibbets waving from Enola Gay's cockpit before taking off for the bombing of Hiroshima