One of fifteen 'Silverplate' B-29s assigned to the 393rd Bombardment (Very Heavy) Squadron of the 509th Composite Group of the XXI Air Force on Tinian Island, the bomber now know as the Enola Gay was designated simply as No. On 31 July the Enola Gay carried out a practice drop of the Little Boy weapon, dropping bomb unit L6 which was a complete bomb lacking only the highly enriched uranium to make it active. The Enola Gay bombed Kobe on 24 July and Koriyama on 26 July. Prior to flying the first atomic combat mission the Enola Gay flew eight practice missions from Tinian, then two conventional bombing missions over Japan using the 6300 pound 'pumpkin' high explosive bomb, designed to simulate the characteristics of the Fat Man bomb. The Enola Gay arrived on Tinian on 6 July 1945. When deployed to the Pacific the Enola Gay was assigned a Victor number, originally No. The Enola Gay's complete serial number (B-29-45-MO, 45-86292) indicated that it was a B-29 built at the Martin Omaha plant built in block 45, and was ordered in fiscal year 1945. The Enola Gay was part of a second batch of fifteen improved Silverplate bombers built between February and June 1945.
The Enola Gay was built under a program code named 'Silverplate' to produce B-29 bombers specially modified for atomic bombing missions. Last changed 13 January 2007 Enola Gay- The Airplane Model:
