"ENOLA GAY"

On August the 6th, 1945, she flew north from Tinian Island and dropped the world's first atomic bomb used in combat, that bomb detonated 1,900 feet above Hiroshima, changing the course of the war in the Pacific forever.

Built by the Glenn L. Martin Company under license at its Bellevue/Omaha, Nebraska plant (now Offutt Air Force Base). It was manufactured as a B-29-45-MO under secret "Silverplate" modifications required to carry nuclear weapons. This involved removing all heavy defensive gun turrets (except the tail gun), installing pneumatic bomb bay doors, fuel-injected Wright R-3350-41 engines, and specialized bomb suspension gear.

Officially accepted by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) on May 18, 1945, and assigned to the 393d Bombardment Squadron, 509th Composite Group. Flew eight practice missions and dropped non-nuclear "Pumpkin" conventional high-explosive bombs on Kobe and Nagoya.

Named "Enola Gay" by pilot Col. Paul W. Tibbets Jr. after his mother, 44-86292 dropped the "Little Boy" uranium atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan—marking the first operational use of a nuclear weapon in history. August 9, 1945: Flew as the primary weather reconnaissance aircraft for the second atomic mission targeting Kokura/Nagasaki.

The aircraft was named Enola Gay by its pilot and commander, Colonel Paul W. Tibbets Jr., after his mother, Enola Gay Tibbets (née Haggard). Tibbets chose to honor his mother because she had supported his ambition to become a pilot, encouraging him to leave his pre-med studies to join the Army Air Corps despite his father's strong opposition.

"Enola Gay" returned to the U.S. in November 1945, participated in Operation Crossroads at Kwajalein Atoll in May 1946 as a secondary back-up aircraft for the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests.

Flown to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, on July 24, 1946, for storage, and officially removed from USAAF inventory on August 30, 1946, when ownership was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution.

But what happened to the real Enola Gay?

The Boeing B-29 Superfortress, serial number 44-86292, was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution in August 1946. The aircraft spent decades disassembled and stored in open-air facilities, suffering weather degradation and damage.

Restoration (1984–2003): The Smithsonian undertook a meticulous 20-year, 300,000-hour restoration project—the largest in the museum's history—to return the bomber to its original 1945 operational state.

Prior to full assembly, only the forward fuselage and cockpit were temporarily exhibited at the main National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for the 50th anniversary of WWII.

Since December 2003, the fully assembled aircraft has hung suspended on elevated pedestals inside the Udvar-Hazy Center, where visitors can view the complete airframe and cockpit from raised walkways.