īoeing’s B-29 Superfortress was the most sophisticated propeller-driven bomber of World War II and the first bomber to house its crew in pressurized compartments. Photograph of the Enola Gay at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Weighing about 9,000 pounds, it produced an explosive force equal to 20,000 tons of TNT.Įditor’s Note: This information was taken directly from the website of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, where the Enola Gay aircraft is on display. The result of the Manhattan Project, begun in June 1942, “Little Boy” was a gun-type weapon, which detonated by firing one mass of uranium down a cylinder into another mass to create a self-sustaining nuclear reaction. It was delivered by the B-29 Enola Gay (on display at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum), and detonated at an altitude of 1,800 feet over Hiroshima. The Mk I bomb, nicknamed “Little Boy,” was the first nuclear weapon used in warfare.
Air Force website, of a non-operational “Little Boy” Mk I bomb constructed in 1945 that was never used in WWII. Official photograph from the National Museum of the U.S.
