When he wanted to taxi, Tibbets leaned out the window to direct the bystanders out of the way. Groves, Jr., wanted the event recorded for posterity, so the takeoff was illuminated by floodlights. The director of the Manhattan Project, Major General Leslie R. Enola Gay, piloted by Tibbets, took off from North Field, in the Mariana Islands, about six hours' flight time from Japan, accompanied by two other B-29s, The Great Artiste, carrying instrumentation, and a then-nameless aircraft later called Necessary Evil, commanded by Captain George Marquardt, to take photographs. Hiroshima was the primary target of the first nuclear bombing mission on 6 August, with Kokura and Nagasaki as alternative targets. Following delivery to the US Twelfth Air Force, the aircraft was assigned to the 393rd Bombardment Squadron (VH) of the 315th Bombardment Wing, receiving individual aircraft number 82. The aircraft was named for the mother of Colonel Paul Tibbets, who flew the aircraft on the Hiroshima mission.Įnola Gay was one of the 536 B-29s built at the Martin-Omaha plant from mid 1944. It is famed for dropping the world's first nuclear bomb used in warfare, which was dropping the Little Boy on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The Enola Gay is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress. You can help the Aircraft Wiki by expanding it.Įnola Gay on the ground, showing the arrowhead painted on the tail in place of the group letter
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