Who flew the enola gay on its historic mission

The B introduced game-changing features, including pressurized crew compartments, remote-controlled gun turrets, and longer range than any previous bomber. For defense, it bristled with twelve.

Enola Gay The Story

Only Tibbets knew the full mission objective, but all crew members had combat experience from Europe or the Pacific. It was unique. They flew long-distance, high-altitude missions over the ocean to simulate the flight to Japan. Tibbets enlisted in the United States Army.

On August 6,a single B bomber changed the world forever. Enola Gay safe return to Tinian, after the mission at p.m. on August 6,the B Enola Gay and its crew flew the first atomic mission in history. Maj. Charles W.

Sweeney, commander of the rd Bomb Squadron, accompanied the Enola Gay on the mission, piloting the B The Great Artiste as an observation aircraft.

Paul Tibbets Wikipedia

The Enola Gay, a Boeing B Superfortress bomber, played a pivotal role in World War II, becoming the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in warfare. Navy Captain William Parsons joined as weaponeer and mission commander. He is best known as the aircraft captain who flew the B Superfortress known as the Enola Gay (named after his mother) when it dropped a Little Boy, the first of two atomic bombs used in warfare, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

Colonel Tibbets named it after his mother, Enola Gay Tibbets, and had a maintenance man paint it in black letters on the nose. Named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of its pilot, Colonel Paul W. Tibbets Jr., the bomber was instrumental in the mission that devastated Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, The Enola Gay's crew consisted of 12 men led by Colonel Paul W.

Tibbets Jr., who commanded the historic atomic bombing mission on August 6, Key members included co-pilot Robert Lewis, bombardier Thomas Ferebee, navigator Theodore Van Kirk, and radar countermeasure officer Jacob Beser. The Army Air Forces took delivery on May 18, They painted Victor number 82 on its fuselage to confuse enemy intelligence.

With its foot wingspan and four powerful Wright R engines, the B could haul 20, pounds of bombs at high altitude over vast distances. Colonel Tibbets assembled an elite crew of 12 men for the Hiroshima mission. Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr.

(23 February – 1 November ) was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force. The Mission The world entered a new era on Aug. 6,when the crew of the B Enola Gay released an atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan. They found fresh paint on the bomber.

He would arm the atomic bomb during flight, while Lieutenant Jacob Beser handled radar countermeasures. No other B would have the same name and he knew the plane would become a part of history. Having lifted off just after a.m. Until then, the bomber had only numbers, no name.

Crews dropped these practice bombs on desert targets. Crew members were surprised when they arrived for the mission. Captain Robert Lewis served as co-pilot. Captain Robert Lewis, the regular aircraft commander who would serve as co-pilot under Tibbets, was especially startled.

The Enola Gay, serial numberrolled off the Glenn L. Martin Company assembly line in Nebraska in Colonel Paul W. Tibbets Jr. After assembly, test pilots put the aircraft through its paces at the factory airfield.