The bomber was one of 15 B-29s with the 'Silverplate' modifications necessary to deliver nuclear weapons. The Enola Gay (B-29-45-MO, serial number 44-86292, victor number 82) was assigned to the USAAF's 393d Bombardment Squadron, Heavy, 509th Composite Group. In 2003, the entire restored B-29 Enola Gay went on display at NASM's new Steven F. The exhibit was changed due to a controversy over original historical script displayed with the aircraft. The Enola Gay gained additional national attention in 1995 when the cockpit and nose section of the aircraft was exhibited at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution in downtown Washington, D.C. The B-29 was named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Paul Tibbets. The Enola Gay is the B-29 Superfortress bomber that dropped the first atomic bomb, code-named 'Little Boy', to be used in war, by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) in the attack on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945, just before the end of World War II.īecause of the bomber's role in the atomic bombings of Japan, its name has been synonymous with the controversy over the bombings themselves.
