Paul Tibbets, who piloted the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb, has died at age 92. The Nagasaki bomb was a plutonium implosion device as exploded in New Mexico at the Trinity site in July 1945. Colonel (later General) Paul Tibbets was the pilot of the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The bomb dropped on Nagasaki three days later was significantly larger and was known as Fat Boy. We lost 2,000 ft.Īlso Know, did the plane that dropped the atomic bomb survive? The bomb dropped on Hiroshima from the Enola Gay was known as Little Boy. “Immediately took the airplane to a 180° turn. When the bomb left the airplane, the plane jumped because you released 10,000 lbs.,” Theodore Van Kirk, the plane's navigator, later recalled. and others explain, delivering a 10,000-pound bomb to southern Japan was a years-long endeavor that required patience, practice, and precision. Secondly, what happened to the plane that dropped the atomic bomb? After the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. On August 6, 1945, the crew of the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb designed at Los Alamos on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Sadly famous for the B29 bomber that dropped "Little Boy", the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima. It is a Native American name meaning MAGNOLIA. Tibbets, Jr., commander of the 509th Composite Group of the United States Army Air Forces. The bomb, code-named "Little Boy", was targeted at the city of Hiroshima, Japan, and caused the near-complete destruction of the city.ĮNOLA stands for the word ALONE backwards. 'Little Boy' was the codename for the atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 during World War II by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, piloted by Colonel Paul W. The Enola Gay (/?ˈno?l?/) is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets.