The Airplane that Ended a War

Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 10:43 PM ET

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The crew of Bockscar, which dropped the atomic
bomb on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945. Maj. Charles
Sweeny is standing in the dark jacket. SSgt. Raymond
Gallagher is in the front row, second from the right.

Key Takeaways:

B-29 bombers were individually named by their crews, and the article specifically addresses the historical confusion surrounding the aircraft that bombed Nagasaki.
The "Fat Man" atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki by "Bockscar," but it was flown by the crew of "The Great Artiste" due to an aircraft swap for mission-specific instrumentation.
The Nagasaki mission faced numerous challenges, including a faulty fuel pump, persistent cloud cover over both primary and secondary targets, and a perilous emergency landing due to critically low fuel.
Despite the difficulties and initial controversies, "Bockscar" is now preserved in a museum and recognized for its pivotal role in ending World War II.

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_Enola Gay. FIFI. The Great Artiste. Kee Bird. The Big Stink.
_

It was an airplane dubbed “Superfortress.” Yet many of the most famous Boeing B-29 bombers that plied the skies during the latter days of World War II carried strangely meek-sounding individual names. Perhaps that’s of benefit to our collective psyche since the airplanes in question were capable of raining such unfathomable destruction from above. After all, attaching a name to a killing machine is merely an attempt to humanize the brutality of war, isn’t it?