The Bockscar plane is preserved at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. This didn’t leave enough time to move the complex instrumentation equipment from The Great Artiste to Bockscar, so the two crews traded planes with each other for the historic flight. Weather considerations caused the fight to be moved from August 11 to August 9.
Normally, Sweeney and his crew piloted an aircraft called The Great Artiste, and this plane provided the instrumentation and observation support for the drop on Hiroshima.įor the second mission to Japan, Sweeny and his crew were chosen to deliver Fat Man while Bock and crew were chosen to provide observation support. At 8:12, with my plane off the Enola Gay's right wing, Colonel Tibbets. Sweeney had used Bockscar for more than 10 training and practice missions (it wasn’t Bock’s airplane after all, just named after him). An Eyewitness Account of America's Last Atomic Mission Charles W. The answer relates to the purposes of the planes for each occasion. The question relates to why didn’t Captain Frederick Bock fly his own plane (Bockscar) during the second run. Dozens of primary sources include eyewitness accounts, government memos. Fewer people are aware that Bockscar (sometimes called Bock’s Car) delivered the second nuclear weapon, Fat Man, to Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. The use of nuclear weapons on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in August of 1945 led to. Most people are aware that the bomber Enola Gay delivered the first atomic weapon to Hiroshima.
