On September 21, 1942, the Boeing XB-29 makes its maiden flight. The B-29 bomber was designed and manufactured in the midst of World War II. B-29s fought in the Pacific theater, flying mostly from small islands with the world's largest airbases, over vast stretches of ocean to enemy targets that could be more than 2,000 miles distant. The B-29 Superfortress was the only aircraft ever to drop atomic bombs in war.
On August 6, 1945, a B-29 named Enola Gay bombed Hiroshima. Three days later, without a Japanese offer of surrender, a B-29 named Bockscar bombed Nagasaki. The two atomic bombs dropped by B-29s on Japan remain the only ones ever used in warfare.
Sources:
HistoryLink.org Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History, "Boeing B-29 Superfortress Bomber -- A Snapshot History," (Anthony E. Pomata), http://www.historylink.org/ (accessed September 2003).
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