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The Silverplate B-29s differed from the standard production bombers in many ways. The standard B-29 had an empty weight of 74,500 pounds (33,793 kilograms) and gross weight of 120,000 pounds (54.431 kilograms). The B-29 Superfortress was 99 feet, 0 inches (30.175 meters) long with a wingspan of 141 feet, 3 inches (43.053 meters) and an overall height of 27 feet, 9 inches (8.458 meters). The B-29 was the most technologically advanced airplane built up to that time, and required an immense effort by American industry to produce. A total of 3,943 Superfortresses were built. Martin Company at Fort Crook (now Offutt Air Force Base, Omaha, Nebraska. Produced in three major version, the B-29, B-29A and B-29B, it was built by Boeing at Wichita, Kansas and Renton, Washington by the Bell Aircraft Corporation at Marietta, Georgia and the Glenn L. The B-29 Superfortress was designed by the Boeing Airplane Company as its Model 345. Lewis, a B-29 aircraft commander who would act as Tibbets’ co-pilot on the atomic bombing mission. The B-29 was accepted by the Army Air Corps on 15 May and flown to the 509th’s base at Wendover, Utah, by Captain Robert A. Martin Company plant at Bellevue, Nebraska.
ENOLA GAY PILOT I SERIAL NUMBER
He had personally selected this bomber, serial number 44-86292, while it was still on the assembly line at the Glenn L. On the morning before the mission, Colonel Tibbets had his mother’s name painted on the nose of the airplane: Enola Gay.
ENOLA GAY PILOT I CODE
Code named “Little Boy,” the Mark I bomb unit L-11, prior to loading aboard Enola Gay, 5 August 1945. Although it was a very inefficient weapon, it was considered to be such reliable design that it had not been tested. The bomb was 120 inches (3.048 meters) long with a diameter of 28 inches (0.711 meter). It contained 64 kilograms (141.1 pounds) of highly-enriched uranium. This was a 9,700-pound (4,400 kilogram) “gun type” fission bomb, the Mark I, code-named Little Boy. Tibbets, Jr., was carrying Bomb Unit L-11, the first nuclear weapon to be used during war. The Martin-Omaha B-29-45-MO Superfortress, 44-86292, under the command of Colonel Paul W. Colonel Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr., United States Army Air Corps, Commanding Officer, 509th Composite Group, and aircraft commander of the B-29 Superfortress, Enola Gay. Air Force)Ħ August 1945: At 0245 hours, a four-engine, long range heavy bomber of the 509th Composite Group, United States Army Air Forces, took off from North Field on the island of Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands, on the most secret combat mission of World War II.
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Japan eventually surrendered on August 15, 1945, after the Americans dropped a second atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki.īut two top lots at the auction failed to sell: a 1945 German surrender order and two of Lewis's log books, which were valued at $150,000–200,000.Ī spokeswoman for Bonhams said that many buyers around the world had expressed interest and that it was "quite common" for post-sale offers to emerge later.Silverplate Martin-Omaha B-29-45-MO Superfortress 44-86292, “Dimples 82,” at Tinian, Marshall Islands, August 1945. When Lewis saw the huge mushroom cloud, he uttered the famous remark "My God, what have we done?" The atomic bombing of the Japanese city killed 140,000 people by December 1945. The single sheet of graph paper shows a pencil and ink drawing of the Enola Gay approaching Hiroshima and on dropping the bomb, turning 150 degrees to the right to avoid the shock waves of the explosion. The same World War II memorabilia auction also sold Lewis's hand-drawn plan for dropping the bomb for $37,500, Bonhams said. The original was sold at auction for $391,000 in 2002 by Christie's. "I honestly have the feeling of groping for words to explain this.