![enola gay plane history enola gay plane history](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/enola-gay-1.jpg)
The final batch of Silverplate Superfortresses were also equipped with improved, fuel-injected engines. These modifications included a modified bomb bay, British bomb attachment and release systems, reversible pitch propellers for more braking power on landing and the removal of protective armor and gun turrets. These B-29s had the primary ability to function as nuclear "weapon delivery" aircraft. The bomber was one of the first 15 B-29s built to the "Silverplate" specification of 65 eventually completed during and after WWII. Martin Company (later part of Lockheed Martin) at its bomber plant in Bellevue, Nebraska, located at Offutt Field, now Offutt Air Force Base.
Enola gay plane history serial number#
The Enola Gay (Model number B-29-45-MO, Serial number 44-86292, Victor #82) was built by the Glenn L. An unforeseen problem occurred when the War Department innocently allocated the name to an unrelated project not knowing of the secret project so the USAAF ordered that project stopped. Fat Man and Thin Man were the implosion and gun-type bombs, and the Pullman was the B-29 aircraft to be modified to carry them. Their trip required a specially modified ("silverplated") Pullman railway carriage. Roosevelt (codenamed “Thin Man”) were going to make a tour of the United States, visiting defense industries. According to the story, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (codenamed “Fat Man”) and President F. In order to further secrecy, a false background story was invented for the project. The only option left was to modify the B-29 Superfortress, and this project was designated as Silver Plated Project, but was later shortened to Silverplate. insisted that the American atomic bomb should be carried and dropped by an American plane. However, the Lancaster was out as both Chief of USAAF General "Hap" Arnold and Manhattan Project director Major General Leslie Groves Jr. Ramsey visited Lancaster's chief designer, Roy Chadwick, who confirmed his bomber could adapt to that size and shape bombs. The second option was the British Avro Lancaster heavy bomber with its cavernous bomb bay and proven lift capability for the 22,000 pounds Grand Slam earthquake bomb) used by Royal Air Force Bomber Command against German U-boat Pens & Viaducts. Ramsey’s objective was to find the right aircraft, his first thought was to modifying a Consolidated B-24 Liberator but this plan was discarded as the US Navy had tried and failed to convert Liberators to carry a torpedo in its bomb bay. Ramsey Jr., an American physicist (above signing the Fat Man on Tinian), was brought into the Manhattan Project to oversee Project Alberta, to deliver to deliver the bombs being created in the Los Alamos labs.
![enola gay plane history enola gay plane history](https://aviationoiloutlet.com/product_images/uploaded_images/2016/07/enola-gay-main.png)
Clouds and drifting smoke necessitated the selection of the secondary target, Nagasaki, being bombed instead. 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 the destruction of about three quarters of the city. Lewis it became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in warfare. The Odyssey of the Most Important Bomber in the World: The “Enola Gay” is a World War II (WWII) Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of its pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets, United States Army Air Forces (USAAF.) On 6 August 1945, piloted by Tibbets & Captain Robert A. Blog - The World's Most Important BomberĮditor’s Note: This ends the MHT Four-Pack on the Atomic Bombs that began with our blogs on the USS Indianapolis (CA-35), Author Don Farrell’s Atomic Bomb Island and how VJ Day almost wasn't with a blog tracing the history of America’s most famous bomber, the Enola Gay.