The airplane was accepted by the USAAF on May 18, 1945, and assigned to Crew B-9 (Capt. Tibbets, Jr., commander of the 509th Composite Group, on while still on the assembly line as the B-29 he would use to fly the atomic bomb mission. Martin Company at its Omaha, Nebraska, plant and personally selected by Colonel Paul W. The plane was one of 15 B-29s with the final "Silverplate" modifications necessary to deliver nuclear bombs.
Udvar-Hazy Center annex near Dulles International Airport in Virginia.Ĭolonel Paul Tibbets waving from Enola Gay's cockpit before the bombing of HiroshimaĮnola Gay (B-29-45-MO, serial number 44-86292, victor number 82) was assigned to the USAAF's 393rd Bomb Squadron, 509th Composite Group and flew the August 6 mission out of Tinian, a large island with several USAAF bases in the Mariana Islands chain. In 2003, Enola Gay went on display at NASM's new Steven F. The plane gained additional national attention in 1994 when an exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution was changed due to a controversy over its historical script. Because of its role in the atomic bombings of Japan, its name has been synonymous with the controversy over the bombings themselves.
Enola Gay is the B-29 Superfortress bomber that dropped "Little Boy", the first atomic bomb ever used in warfare, when the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) attacked Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945, just before the end of World War II.