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.
