![]() ![]() Robert Lewis, of the 509th Composite Group, from the factory to New Mexico, then to Tinian in the Mariana Islands, where its crew practiced flight maneuvers, loading the massive bomb and dropping it. 82 then, was flown by Army Air Forces Capt. Only the tail gun position was left to defend it from enemies. The remote-controlled gun turrets were also taken away to increase speed. “You have a 10,000 pound atomic bomb you have to carry, so you have to lighten the airplane.” Jeremy Kinney, the Air and Space Museum’s curator of American military aviation, 1919-1945. “All of the armor that protects the crew was removed to save weight,” said Dr. ![]() The famous B-29 Superfortress rolled off the Glenn Martin assembly line in the spring of 1945 with what was known as a “silverplate modification” specifically for the atomic mission. It’s a plane with a huge, controversial, world-changing story to tell. Seventy-five years ago, the United States dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, bringing an end to a long and devastating World War II and making the Enola Gay, the B-29 that delivered it, one of the most famous in history.
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