Parsons, who had seen countless B-29s crash on take-off, felt that if he armed the weapon on the ground, and Enola Gay suffered the slightest mishap, the mission would end in disaster for the Manhattan project, and death for thousands of sailors and airmen on Tinian.Īt 3:00 a.m., with the Enola Gay safely thousands of feet up and hundreds of miles away, Parsons began carefully inserting the explosive charge that gave the “Little Boy” its teeth. Weaponeer Parsons began his day by ignoring orders forbidding the mid-air arming of the bomb in the belief that it was too dangerous. “Deak” Parsons, was in some sense the leader of the world’s first atomic bomb run. Tibbets was the boss, but another figure, Navy Capt. “Thanks to our extra speed – we were at 155 miles an hour – the plane lifted off easily and climbed steadily.” “I held firm until we were a little more than 100 feet from the end of the pavement,” Tibbets said. Kneeling from left to right: radar operator Sgt. Lewis, and radar counter-measure officer Lt. Standing from left to right: ground maintenance officer Lt. Tibbets resisted the urge to attempt takeoff before the aircraft reached its best speed possible.Ĭrewmembers of the Enola Gay. He released the brakes, advanced the throttles, and rolled down the long runway, gathering speed.
The aircraft was heavily loaded with fuel and the 9,000-pound bomb, and was 15,000 pounds over the usual takeoff weight. Tibbets had already decided to make use of every inch of the runway. 6, 1945, Enola Gay taxied out from its Tinian parking spot with its unique cargo. Besides the Enola Gay, six aircraft were to participate – three were weather planes, launched beginning at 1:17 a.m, a back-up aircraft in case Enola Gay encountered mechanical problems and needed to land at Iwo Jima, and two additional B-29s carrying special instrumentation.
The pre-dawn launch from Tinian involved a number of other 509th group B-29 bombers. Tibbets’ crew included four who had flown with him in Europe: bombardier Maj. Not really little at all but actually 12 feet long, weighing 9,000 pounds with a 28-inch diameter belly, the Little Boy was hoisted by hydraulic lift and slipped through the bomb bay with two inches to spare. They moved the big bomber into position straddling a bomb-loading pit. 5, 1945, ground crews began loading the “Little Boy” weapon aboard Enola Gay. Dorr, scheduled for publication in the fall of 2012. The tentative cover design for the book Mission to Tokyo, by Defense Media Network author Robert F. The plane Lewis had thought his own would eventually wear the words Enola Gay, named for Tibbets’ mother. Most members of the 509th still did not know why they were on Tinian, why they had special aircraft, or why they were sitting out big missions being flown by hundreds of B-29s. Someone wrote a poem deriding Tibbets’ outfit:īut take it from one who is sure of the score, Members of other units found 509th troops reluctant to converse, clannish, and tight-lipped. He had to have some sense that nothing less than the fate of the world rested in the hands of his 1,760 men and 15 specially configured Superfortresses. Tibbets understood little of the science behind the Manhattan Project but he knew bombing and bombers. In charge of the 509th was Paul Tibbets, born in Illinois but a product of an Iowa upbringing, serious, earnest, deadpan. No one else at B-29 bases in the Marianas had enjoyed the luxury of arriving aboard their own transport planes. It was supposed to be a combat group, like the others on Guam, Saipan and Tinian, yet it had only two flying squadrons – one with B-29 Superfortress bombers, the other with C-54 Skymaster transports. The 509th’s distinctive tailcode of an arrow inside a circle was changed to that of the 6th Bomb Group’s “circle R” by Tibbets after Tokyo Rose noted the tailcodes of the newly-arrived aircraft in two separate radio broadcasts. Boeing B-29 Enola Gay on Tinian in the Marianas Islands.