Boeing, Consolidated, Douglas, and Lockheed responded with design proposals. It described an airplane that could carry a maximum bomb load of 909 kg (2,000 lb) at a speed of 644 kph (400 mph) a distance of at least 8,050 km (5,000 miles). Several years of preliminary studies paralleled a continuous fight against those who saw limited utility in developing such an expensive and unproven aircraft but the Air Corps issued a requirement for the new bomber in February 1940. Army Air Corps leaders recognized the need for very long-range bombers that exceeded the performance of the B-17 Flying Fortress. On August 14, 1945, the Japanese accepted Allied terms for unconditional surrender. Enola Gay flew as the advance weather reconnaissance aircraft that day. Sweeney piloted the B-29 Bockscar and dropped a highly enriched plutonium, implosion-type atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. Tibbets, Jr., in command of the Superfortress Enola Gay, dropped a highly enriched uranium, explosion-type, "gun-fired," atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. During the war in the Pacific Theater, the B-29 delivered the first nuclear weapons used in combat. Boeing installed very advanced armament, propulsion, and avionics systems into the Superfortress. ``In a sense, that’s more important.Boeing's B-29 Superfortress was the most sophisticated, propeller-driven, bomber to fly during World War II, and the first bomber to house its crew in pressurized compartments. ``We’ve got the airplane that finished the war,″ he said.
Upptrom said the Air Force Museum exhibit will have no moral messages or politics.Īnd no, he said, he doesn’t covet Bockscar’s better-known sister plane. But curator Richard Upptrom said there will be no display like the one originally proposed for the Enola Gay.Īfter critics complained that exhibit would have portrayed the Japanese as victims and gloss over Japanese aggression and war atrocities, the Smithsonian decided to scrap much of its controversial, interpretative parts. Air Force Museum plans to add photos and other information. ``Every time I go down and visit the aircraft, I pat it on the side,″ he said.īock said he, too, would like to see Bockscar given the same prominence as the Enola Gay, parts of which are to be displayed at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington.Īs the anniversary of Fat Man’s explosion nears, the U.S. Olivi, 73 and living in Chicago, retains a warm feeling for the plane. ``It just scared the hell out of us,″ said Olivi.Īfter the war, Bockscar was packed away in storage, then later restored and flown to the museum. ``We could see the thing building up, a big boiling cauldron,″ Bock said.
Inside the mushroom, they had all kinds of colors.″īock, flying the plane that accompanied Bockscar to record the effects of the bomb, recalled circling the roiling mushroom cloud. ``The telltale mushroom cloud was coming up to our altitude. Right away, the city was covered by smoke and dust and fire,″ Olivi said. ``When the bomb exploded, it was about 20 times brighter than the sunlight. 9, 1945, to bomb the steel-making city of Kokura, but clouds and smoke obscured the target. Fred Bock, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress took off before dawn on Aug. ``It’s surprising how many people don’t know about Bockscar.″ I would like to see it get more attention,″ said Fred Olivi, a crew member on the Nagasaki mission. It’s harder to miss the mushroom cloud painted on Bockscar’s nose. Those who don’t read past the second paragraph miss the atomic bomb connection altogether.
Bockscar’s story is told in three short paragraphs on a plaque set before the craft.