06/08/2026
81 years ago the world's first combat deployed Atomic Bomb was dropped by a US Army Air Force Boeing B-29 Super Fortress.
Here are some details I found interesting about the mission:
- The B-29 was the most expensive weapon program of World War II, costing more to develop the aircraft than the bomb itself.
- Paul Tibbets, (the pilot of the B-29 that dropped the bomb) played a much larger part in the mission than just the Pilot. He was in command of 1,700 men in the 509th composite group during the 10 months preparing for the mission.
- Tibbets only explained to his crew the nature of their mission when they were in the air on their way to the target. He offered the crew cyanide capsules explaining if anything went wrong, they couldn't be taken captive.
2 of them accepted the offer.
- The bomb was released from an altitude of 31,000 feet and took 43 seconds to fall to the detonation point 1,900 feet above the city.
- After dropping the bomb, Tibbets put the B-29 into a 60 degree dive and turned 155 degrees away from their original heading. If they had stayed the same path the aircraft would have been destroyed by the shockwave.
- When the Shockwave did hit the B-29, it put approximately 2.5gs of force on the bomber even though it was already 11.5 miles away from the blast.
- The B-29 Crew instantly tasted metal in their mouths from the radiation released by the explosion.
Picture 1: The B-29 Enola Gay landing on Tinian at the end of the mission.
Picture 2: The mushroom cloud 2-3 minutes after the atomic explosion. Taken by the Enola Gay tail gunner George Robert Caron.
I have visited the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima Japan, it was a very humbling experience.
As a life long history enthusiast, I had read about the destruction and loss of life in great detail over the years. It was still a very somber feeling walking around the memorial park and victims memorial cenotaph.
