At the head of the 509th, Tibbets piloted the B-29 Superfortresswhich he named for his mother, Enola Gay Tibbetsthat led the bombing of the two cities. Long Description Boeing'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. Paul Tibbets waves from the cockpit of Enola Gay, 6 August 1945. It was flown to Kwajalein for the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests in the Pacific, but was not chosen to make the test drop at Bikini Atoll. Boeing B-29 Superfortress 'Enola Gay' Display Status: This object is on display in the World War II Aviation (UHC) at the Steven F. After the war, the Enola Gay returned to the United States, where it was operated from Roswell Army Air Field, New Mexico. Clouds and drifting smoke resulted in Nagasaki being bombed instead. Enola Gay participated in the second atomic attack as the weather reconnaissance aircraft for the primary target of Kokura. Enola Gay was flown by a modified Crew B-9 for the Hiroshima mission and Crew B-10 for the Nagasaki mission. The bomb, code-named "Little Boy", was targeted at the city of Hiroshima, Japan, and caused unprecedented destruction. Enola Gay, Regular Crew (Crew B-9) Crew B-9 flew five combat missions, including the Hiroshima bombing mission. On 6 August 1945, during the final stages of World War II, it became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb. The Enola Gay is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named for Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets, who selected the aircraft while it was still on the assembly line.