''Full House'' was the name of a

B-29 Superfortress The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 Fl ...

(B-29-36-MO 44-27298, victor number 83) participating in the atomic bomb attack on

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...

on August 6, 1945. Assigned to the

393d Bomb Squadron The 393rd Bomb SquadronOfficially, the 393d Bomb Squadron is part of the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. It operates Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit nuclear-capable strategic bomber aircraft. The squadron was first organiz ...

509th Composite Group The 509th Composite Group (509 CG) was a unit of the United States Army Air Forces created during World War II and tasked with the operational deployment of nuclear weapons. It conducted the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in ...

, it was used as a weather reconnaissance plane and flew to the city of

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the ...

, designated a "tertiary target", before the final bombing to determine if conditions were favorable for an attack. The aircraft also flew as a spare aircraft during the mission to bomb Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, but landed at

Iwo Jima Iwo Jima (, also ), known in Japan as , is one of the Japanese Volcano Islands and lies south of the Bonin Islands. Together with other islands, they form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The highest point of Iwo Jima is Mount Suribachi at high. ...

when the B-29

Bockscar ''Bockscar'', sometimes called Bock's Car, is the name of the United States Army Air Forces B-29 bomber that dropped a Fat Man nuclear weapon over the Japanese city of Nagasaki during World War II in the secondand most recent nuclear attack in ...

was able to complete the mission.

Airplane history

One of 15 Silverplate B-29s used by the 509th, ''Full House'' was built at the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Plant at

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

, as a Block 35 aircraft. It was one of 10 modified as a Silverplate and re-designated "Block 36". Delivered on March 20, 1945, to the USAAF, it was assigned to Crew A-1 (Captain Ralph R. Taylor, aircraft commander) and flown to

Wendover Army Air Field Wendover Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base in Utah now known as Wendover Airport. During World War II, it was a training base for B-17 and B-24 bomber crews. It was the training site of the 509th Composite Group, the B-29 ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. It left Wendover on June 11, 1945 for North Field, Tinian and arrived June 17. It was originally assigned the Victor (unit-assigned identification) number 13 but on August 1 was given the square P tail markings of the 39th Bomb Group as a security measure and had its Victor changed to 83 to avoid misidentification with actual 39th BG aircraft. It was named ''Full House'' and its nose art applied after the atomic bomb missions. In addition to its roles on the Hiroshima and Nagasaki missions, Capt. Taylor and crew A-1 flew the bomber on 12 practice and training missions, and four combat missions in which it dropped

pumpkin bomb Pumpkin bombs were conventional aerial bombs developed by the Manhattan Project and used by the United States Army Air Forces against Japan during World War II. It was a close replication of the Fat Man plutonium bomb with the same ballistic an ...

s on industrial targets at

Toyama Toyama may refer to: Places and organizations * Toyama Prefecture, a prefecture of Japan located in the Hokuriku region on the main Honshu island * Toyama, Toyama, the capital city of Toyama Prefecture * Toyama Station, the main station of Toyama, ...

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, Yaizu, and

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. Capt.

Frederick C. Bock Frederick Carl Bock Jr (January 18, 1918 – August 25, 2000) was a World War II pilot who took part in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945. Bock attended the University of Chicago and went on to enroll in a graduate course in philosoph ...

and crew C-13 flew ''Full House'' on a pumpkin bomb mission to Komoro, Nagano. In November 1945 it returned to the United States with the 509th CG to

Roswell Army Airfield Walker Air Force Base is a closed United States Air Force base located three miles (5 km) south of the central business district of Roswell, New Mexico. It was opened in 1941 as an Army Air Corps flying school and was active during World ...

. In June 1949 it was transferred to the 97th Bomb Group at

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, then re-configured as a TB-29 trainer in April 1950 by The Oklahoma City Air Materiel Area at

Tinker Air Force Base Tinker Air Force Base is a major United States Air Force base, with tenant U.S. Navy and other Department of Defense missions, located in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, surrounded by Del City, Oklahoma City, and Midwest City. The base, origina ...

. It subsequently served as part of: *106th Radar Calibration Squadron, Sioux City Air Force Base,

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

(August 1952), *7th Radar Calibration Squadron, Sioux City AFB (September 1953) *4677th Radar Evaluation Flight,

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(March 1954), *Mobile Air Materiel Area,

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

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(March 1955), and *17th Tow Target Squadron, Vincent Air Force Base,

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(July 1955). ''Full House'' was dropped from the Air Force inventory in November 1956. It was transferred to the U.S. Navy and used as a target at the Naval Ordnance Test Station at China Lake,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Hiroshima mission crew

Crew A-1 (regularly assigned to ''Full House'') *Capt. Wolcott A. Depree II., Aircraft Pilot *Capt. Ralph R. Taylor Jr., Aircraft Commander *2nd Lt. Raymond P. Biel, Co-Pilot *1st Lt. Fred A. Hoey, Navigator *1st Lt. Michael Angelich, Bombardier *M/Sgt. Frank M. Briese, Flight Engineer *S/Sgt. Theodore M. Slife, Radio Operator *Cpl. Nathaniel T. R. Burgwyn, Radar Operator *T/Sgt. Robert J. Valley, Tail Gunner *Cpl. Richard B. Anselme, Assistant Engineer/Scanner

Other aircraft named ''Full House''

* A

FB-111A The General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark is a retired supersonic, medium-range, multirole combat aircraft. Production variants of the F-111 had roles that included ground attack (e.g. interdiction), strategic bombing (including nuclear weapons c ...

strategic bomber of the USAF

509th Bomb Wing The 509th Bomb Wing (509 BW) is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the Air Force Global Strike Command, Eighth Air Force. It is stationed at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. The 509 BW is the host unit at Whiteman, and operates ...

, serial 68-0270, carried the name and original nose art of ''Full House'' on its nosewheel doors while based at

Pease Air Force Base Pease, in Middle English, was a noun referring to the vegetable pea; see that article for its etymology. The word survives into modern English in pease pudding. Pease may also refer to: People * Pease family (Darlington), a prominent family in D ...

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

, in the 1970s and 1980s. * A Boeing B-17 strategic bomber in the

ETO ETO may refer to: Science and technology * Emitter turn off thyristor, a semiconductor device * Ethylene oxide, an organic compound * RUNX1T1, a gene * Efforts to Outcomes, software produced by Social Solutions Sports * ETO-SZESE Győr FKC, a H ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Its successful arrival at Poltava airfield after a catastrophic oxygen-fueled explosion and fire allowed authorities to identify the source of the design's "fatal flaw", which had mysteriously downed other aircraft during bombing missions. The airplane was repaired and returned to the front, where it was later lost in combat.

References

Sources

* Campbell, Richard H., ''The Silverplate Bombers: A History and Registry of the Enola Gay and Other B-29s Configured to Carry Atomic Bombs'' (2005),
509th CG Aircraft Page, MPHPA
{{B-29 family Full House Full House Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki