Enola Gay was the B-29 bomber that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima during the final weeks of World War II.
The aircraft was a Boeing B-29 Superfortress assigned to the 509th Composite Group of the U.S. Army Air Forces. On August 6, 1945, it carried Little Boy from Tinian Island in the Mariana Islands and released the bomb over Hiroshima. Colonel Paul Tibbets piloted the aircraft and had named it after his mother, Enola Gay Tibbets.
The B-29 Bockscar dropped Fat Man on Nagasaki three days later, so the two aircraft are often confused. The Great Artiste supported both missions but did not drop either atomic bomb. Enola Gay returned safely to Tinian after the Hiroshima mission. Japan announced its surrender on August 15, and the formal surrender document was signed on September 2.