US Army Air Forces Boeing B-29 airplane that dropped the first atomic bomb
This article is about the bomber. For other uses, see Enola Gay (disambiguation).
Enola Gay
Paul Tibbets waving from the Enola Gay's cockpit before taking off for the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945
Type
B-29-45-MO Superfortress
Manufacturer
Glenn L. Martin Company, Omaha, Nebraska
Manufactured
18 May 1945; 78 years ago (1945-05-18)
Serial
44-86292
Radio code
Victor 12 (later changed to Victor 82)
Owners and operators
United States Army Air Forces
In service
18 May 1945 – 24 July 1946
Preserved at
National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
The Enola Gay (/əˈnoʊlə/) is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets. On 6 August 1945, during the final stages of World War II, it became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in warfare. The bomb, code-named "Little Boy", was targeted at the city of Hiroshima, Japan, and caused the destruction of about three quarters of the city. Enola Gay participated in the second nuclear attack as the weather reconnaissance aircraft for the primary target of Kokura. Clouds and drifting smoke resulted in Nagasaki, a secondary target, being bombed instead.
After the war, the Enola Gay returned to the United States, where it was operated from Roswell Army Air Field, New Mexico. In May 1946, 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. 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 its 1961 disassembly and storage at a Smithsonian facility in Suitland, Maryland.
In the 1980s, veterans groups engaged in a call for the Smithsonian to put the aircraft on display, leading to an acrimonious debate about exhibiting the aircraft without a proper historical context. The cockpit and nose section of the aircraft were exhibited at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) on the National Mall, for the bombing's 50th anniversary in 1995, amid controversy. Since 2003, the entire restored B-29 has been on display at NASM's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. The last survivor of its crew, Theodore Van Kirk, died on 28 July 2014 at the age of 93.
The EnolaGay (/əˈnoʊlə/) is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named after EnolaGay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets. On 6 August...
as the aircraft captain who flew the B-29 Superfortress known as the EnolaGay (named after his mother) when it dropped a Little Boy, the first of two...
ISBN 0-9605562-0-6. Tibbets, Paul W. (1998). Return of the EnolaGay. New Hope, Pennsylvania: EnolaGay Remembered Inc. ISBN 0-9703666-0-4. OCLC 40566286. 509th...
up enola in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Enola may refer to: Enola, Arkansas, USA; a town Enola, Nebraska, USA; an unincorporated community Enola, Pennsylvania...
of the atomic bombing of Japan. The centerpiece of the exhibit was the EnolaGay, the B-29 bomber that dropped Little Boy on the Japanese city of Hiroshima...
used in warfare. The bomb was dropped by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress EnolaGay piloted by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets Jr., commander of the 509th Composite...
the United States Army Air Forces, best known as the navigator of the EnolaGay when it dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Upon the death of...
ISBN 1-57488-859-5. Tibbets, Paul W. (1998). Return of the EnolaGay. New Hope, Pennsylvania: EnolaGay Remembered Inc. ISBN 0-9703666-0-4. OCLC 40566286. Unknown...
"Chronology of the Controversy". EnolaGay Archive. Air Force Magazine.com. Retrieved 2011-09-01. "Controversy FAQ" (PDF). EnolaGay Archive. Air Force Magazine...
OCLC 13793436. Tibbets, Paul W. (1998). Return of the EnolaGay. New Hope, Pennsylvania: EnolaGay Remembered Inc. ISBN 0-9703666-0-4. OCLC 40566286. Wainstock...
10 hits during the 1980s and 1990s, including their signature songs "EnolaGay" (1980) and "If You Leave" (1986). OMD's albums Architecture & Morality...
1918 – March 16, 2000) was the bombardier aboard the B-29 Superfortress, EnolaGay, which dropped the atomic bomb "Little Boy" on Hiroshima in 1945. Thomas...
photograph—given to Japan by the United States after the bombing—of the EnolaGay piloted by a dolphin and a killer whale. According to him, Japan was so...
Vonnegut, the crew of the EnolaGay has made a national tour of shopping malls – signing autographs and selling EnolaGay coffee mugs, photographs, videos...
met both the pilot and co-pilot of the B-29 that bombed Hiroshima, the EnolaGay. In New York City in 1951, Schiffer met co-pilot Robert A. Lewis. Schiffer...
band achieved popularity throughout Europe with the 1980 anti-war song "EnolaGay", and gained further recognition via Architecture & Morality (1981) and...
definitive photograph of the cloud from the tail gunner position of the "EnolaGay." EnolaGay returned to Tinian at 14:58. Purnell, Parsons, Tibbets, Spaatz and...
News. 27 April 2019. Retrieved 5 October 2021. "Theodore Van Kirk, 93, EnolaGay Navigator, Dies". The New York Times. 29 July 2014. Retrieved 30 July...
served during World War II. Beser was the radar specialist aboard the EnolaGay on August 6, 1945, when it dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb on Hiroshima...
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