Big Stink (B-29)
| Big Stink (1945-1946) | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Aircraft of the 509th Composite Group (left to right: Big Stink, The Great Artiste, Enola Gay) |
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| Other name(s) | Dave's Dream (1946-1960) |
| Type | Boeing B-29-40-MO Superfortress |
| Manufacturer | Glenn L. Martin Company at Omaha, Nebraska |
| Serial | 44-27354 |
| Owners and operators | United States Army Air Forces |
| In service | April 20, 1945 |
| Fate | Struck off charge and allocated for salvage from February 1960 |
Big Stink – later renamed Dave's Dream – was a United States Army Air Forces Boeing B-29-40-MO Superfortress bomber (Victor number 90) that participated in the atomic bomb attack on Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945. Assigned to the 393d Bomb Squadron, 509th Composite Group, it was used as a camera plane in support of the bomb-carrying B-29 Bockscar to photograph the explosion and effects of the bomb, and also to carry scientific observers. The mission was flown by crew C-14 but with Group Operations Officer Major James I. Hopkins, Jr., as the aircraft commander.
Victor 90 left without one of the support members when Major Hopkins ordered Dr. Robert Serber of Project Alberta to leave the plane – reportedly after the B-29 had already taxied onto the runway – because the scientist had forgotten his parachute. Since Serber was the only crew member who knew how to operate the high-speed camera, Hopkins had to be instructed by radio from Tinian on its use.
The aircraft failed to make its rendezvous with the remainder of the strike flight, which completed the mission without it. It did however arrive at Nagasaki in time to photograph the effects of the blast – albeit at an altitude of 39,000 feet (11,877 meters) rather than the planned 30,000 feet (9,144 meters) – then recovered at Yontan Airfield, Okinawa, with both Bockscar and the B-29 The Great Artiste.
B-29-40-MO 44-27354 was built at the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Plant at Omaha, Nebraska, accepted by the U.S. Army Air Forces on 20 April 1945, and flown to Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, by its assigned crew A-5 (under Lieutenant Colonel Thomas J. Classen, aircraft commander and group deputy commander) in May 1945. It departed Wendover for North Field on Tinian on 29 June 1945 and arrived 24 June 1945.
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