The Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb used in warfare on Hiroshima in August 1945.
The aircraft was a Boeing B-29 Superfortress operated by the United States Army Air Forces. On August 6, 1945, it released Little Boy over Hiroshima during the final stage of World War II. Colonel Paul Tibbets piloted the mission.
The bomber was named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the pilot’s mother. It was one of a small number of specially modified B-29s prepared to carry nuclear weapons under the Silverplate program.
The Enola Gay is sometimes confused with Bockscar, the B-29 that dropped Fat Man on Nagasaki three days later. Enola Gay also took part in the second atomic mission as a weather-reconnaissance aircraft for Kokura, the original primary target before the bomb was diverted to Nagasaki.