Where to see the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb

The Enola Gay, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress that dropped the "Little Boy" atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, is on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. The fully assembled plane weighs 137,500 pounds and has a 141-foot wingspan, so it could not fit in the museum’s flagship building on the National Mall.

The bomber was named for pilot Paul Tibbets’ mother and was flown by a crew from the 509th Composite Group, which trained at Windover, Utah. To carry the 9,700-pound bomb the Enola Gay had most defensive armament removed, leaving only the 50-caliber tail guns, and was left unpainted to save about 850 pounds.

The bomb detonated about 1,900 feet above Hiroshima, and initial deaths numbered at least 70,000; later estimates of total deaths over five years and revised counts from Japanese and anti-nuclear researchers raised those figures.

United States, Chantilly, Virginia

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