Interesting fact: Enola Gay also took part in the second atomic attack on Japan: it was used as the weather reconnaissance aircraft for the original target of Kokura. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. In 2003, the fully restored Enola Gay went on display at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Work on restoring it – a project which spanned nearly twenty years – began in 1984. Little Boy exploded 1,900 feet (580 metres) above the city, killing tens of thousands of people and causing immense destruction.Įnola Gay remained in service until it was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 1949. Tibbets instructed a maintenance man to paint the name "Enola Gay" on the aircraft's nose shortly before take-off on the Hiroshima mission. Hiroshima took off from Tinians North Field at Bockscar reached the rendezvous point and assembled with The Enola Artiste, but after circling for some model. Lieutenant Colonel Tibbets flew the plane to Hiroshima where its deadly payload, an atomic bomb called Little Boy, was dropped from the plane and exploded over the city on August 6, 1945.Įnola Gay was a four-engine heavy bomber that had undergone a number of modifications, including reinforcements to its bomb bay. The average mass-production pilot offsets. We have just started engines, ready to take off at approximately 0235 aboard the B-29 bomber, or as we call her, Enola. If it weren't for mechanics like James, history shows, the U.S. It wants to swerve off the runway to the left. He watched the Enola Gay take off, carrying the atomic bomb that would help end the war. The B-29 was delivered to the USAAF on May 18, 1945. He told Tibbets he would assemble most of the bomb before take off, but then Tibbets and his crew would have to complete it while en route to Hiroshima. William Parsons is wearing glasses and in the formal Navy hat. He relayed the news of the atomic bomb to his superiors in code, who forwarded it to President Truman. The B-29 has lots of torque in take-off, he notes. Martin Company, under contract from Boeing, in Omaha, Nebraska. Wikimedia Commons The crew on Tinian Island loads Little Boy into the Enola Gay, August of 1945. Richard Nelson was the youngest of the Enola Gay crew.
705), I read: Paul Tibbets eased the brakes of Enola Gay at 0245, the four fuel-injected Wright Cyclone engines pounding. The B-29 bomber, Enola Gay, was named after the mother of pilot Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr. In this book, The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes (p. It was named after the pilot's mother (Pronounced en-oh-lah gay)Īll the engineers were old and gay (Enola Gay) who worked on the Enola Gay bomber plane. Enola Gay – The B-29 bomber that was used by the United States to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.