General Tibbets retired from the Air Force on Sept. Attracted by the land boom, the Tibbets family moved to Florida when Paul was nine. He also was in charge of the flight test development of the atomic bomb itself.ĭuring what many consider one of the most daring air raids in American history, the Enola Gay, named after General Tibbets' mother, took off from the island of Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands headed for Japan. 23, 1915, son of Enola Gay and Paul Warfield Tibbets in Quincy, Illinois. He helped develop the employment capabilities of the atomic bomb in combat operations including the mating of the development of the atomic bomb to the airplane. In September 1944, the general was assigned to the Atomic Bomb Project as the Air Force officer in charge. Benning, Ga.Īfter flying multiple combat missions in Europe and North Africa, the then-B-17 Flying Fortress pilot returned to the United States in March 1943 to participate in the B-29 program. COLUMBUS, Ohio - Paul Tibbets, who etched his mother's name - Enola Gay - into history on the nose of the B-29 bomber he flew to drop the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, died Thursday after six decades of steadfastly defending the mission. He graduated from pilot school at Kelly Field, Texas, and went to his first assignment with the 16th Observation Squadron at Lawson Field, Ft. Thomas, Ky., after attending college at University of Florida and the University of Cincinnati where he majored in chemistry. The Enola, named after his mother, took off from Tinian Island, near the Pacific island of Guam, in the predawn hours of Aug. Born in 1915 in Quincy, Illinois, he had his first bombing experience at age 12 by. In late 1944, Tibbets, then a colonel, was selected for the top-secret bombing mission over Japan, the culmination of the Manhattan Project. General Tibbets, a native of Quincy, Ill., entered the Army Air Corps on Feb. Tibbets is a World War II bomber pilot of unparalleled fame. The general was the pilot of "the Enola Gay," the B-29 Superfortress which dropped the first atomic bomb, "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945, which many historian consider the end of World War II.
Tibbets Jr., the pilot of the first atomic bombing mission, died of natural causes Nov.