Enola Gay

The Enola Gay is a really interesting plane; it was in the national air and space museum we went to yesterday. I am going to tell you a little about what I learned and some interesting history I found in the internet.

The Enola Gay, was built by the Glenn L. Martin Company (which is now named the  Lockheed Martin) at its Bellevue, Nebraska plant, located at what is now known as Offutt Air Force Base. The bomber was one of 15 B 29”s with the Silver plate modifications necessary to deliver atomic weapons. These modifications included an extensively modified bomb bay with pneumatic doors and British bomb attachment and release systems, reversible pitch propellers that gave more braking power on landing, improved engines with fuel injection and better cooling, and the removal of protective armor and gun turrets.  

Enola Gay was personally selected by Colonel Paul W. Tibbett’s, Jr., the commander of the five-hundred and ninth  Composite Group, on 9 May 1945, while still on the assembly line. The aircraft was accepted by the United States Army Air Forces (U.S.A.A.F.) on 18 May 1945 and assigned to the three hundred ninety third Bombardment Squadron, Heavy, and Five hundred and ninth Composite Groups. Crew B 9, commanded by Captain Robert A. Lewis, took delivery of the bomber and flew it from Omaha to the Five hundred and ninth base at Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, on 14 June 1945.(it is cool that the army selected this one of fifteenth aircrafts to use it was cool in the museum it is very shiny and you can still see the name “Enola Gay” on the side of it.

Thirteen days later, the aircraft left Wendover for Guam, where it received a bomb-bay modification, and flew to North Field, Tinian, on 6 July. It was initially given the Victor (squadron-assigned identification) number  twelve, but on the first of August, was given the circle R tail markings of the 6th Bombardment Group as a security measure and had its Victor number changed to eighty-two to avoid misidentification with actual 6th Bombardment Group aircraft. During July, the bomber made eight practice or training flights, and flew two missions, on twenty-fourth and twenty sixth July, to drop pumpkin bombs on industrial targets at Kobe and Nagoya. Enola Gay was used on thirty-first July on a rehearsal flight for the actual mission.

The partially assembled Little Boy gun-type nuclear weapon L-11 was contained inside a 41-inch (100 cm) x 47-inch (120 cm) x 138 inch (350 cm) wooden crate weighing 10,000 pounds (4,500 kg) that was secured to the deck of the USS Indianapolis. Unlike the six Uranium-235 target discs, which were later flown to Tinian on three separate aircraft arriving 28 and 29 July, the assembled projectile with the nine Uranium-235 rings installed was shipped in a single lead-lined steel container weighing 300 pounds (140 kg) that was securely locked to brackets welded to the deck of Captain Charles B. McVay III's quarters. Both the L-11 and projectile were dropped off at Tinian on 26 July 1945.