''Laggin' Dragon'' was the name of a Boeing B-29 Superfortress (B-29-50-MO, 44-86347 Victor number 95) configured to carry the atomic bomb in

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 opposing ...

Airplane history

''Laggin' Dragon'' was the last of the fifteen

Silverplate Silverplate was the code reference for the United States Army Air Forces' participation in the Manhattan Project during World War II. Originally the name for the aircraft modification project which enabled a B-29 Superfortress bomber to drop a ...

B-29s delivered to the

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 ...

for use in the atomic bomb operation. 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 ...

, it was accepted by the USAAF on June 15, 1945, after most of the 509th CG had already left

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- ...

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 ...

, for

North Field, Tinian North Field is a former World War II airfield on Tinian in the Mariana Islands. Abandoned after the war, today North Field is a tourist attraction. Along with several adjacent beaches on which Allied forces landed during the Battle of Tinian, th ...

. 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 ...

, Crew A-2 (Capt. Edward M. Costello, Aircraft Commander) flew it to Wendover in early July and briefly used in training and practice bombing missions. On July 27, 1945, Costello and his crew flew the airplane from Wendover to Kirtland Army Air Field, Albuquerque, New Mexico, accompanied by another 509th B-29 and one from the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

test unit at Wendover (216th AAF Base Unit). There each loaded one of three

Fat Man "Fat Man" (also known as Mark III) is the codename for the type of nuclear bomb the United States detonated over the Japanese city of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945. It was the second of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in warfare, the fir ...

atomic bomb assemblies (without the

plutonium core The pit, named after the hard core found in fruits such as peaches and apricots, is the core of an implosion nuclear weapon – the fissile material and any neutron reflector or tamper bonded to it. Some weapons tested during the 1950s used ...

, which had left the day before by courier on one of the 509th CG's

C-54 Skymaster The Douglas C-54 Skymaster is a four-engined transport aircraft used by the United States Army Air Forces in World War II and the Korean War. Like the Douglas C-47 Skytrain derived from the DC-3, the C-54 Skymaster was derived from a civilian a ...

transports) in its bomb bay for conveyance to Tinian. The three bombers flew to Mather Army Air Field, California, on July 28, and took off for

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

on July 29. During takeoff from Mather, a panel door on ''Laggin' Dragon'' enclosing the

life raft A lifeboat or liferaft is a small, rigid or inflatable boat carried for emergency evacuation in the event of a disaster aboard a ship. Lifeboat drills are required by law on larger commercial ships. Rafts ( liferafts) are also used. In the m ...

compartment opened and ejected the raft, which wrapped around the

empennage The empennage ( or ), also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third e ...

and impeded the B-29's elevators. The aircraft struggled to stay aloft but the pilots managed to return safely to Mather. After removing and replacing some major tail assemblies, ''Laggin' Dragon'' and its cargo continued to Hawaii, finally reaching Tinian on August 2. It was assigned the square P tail identifier of the 39th Bomb Group as a security measure and given Victor (unit-assigned identification) number 95 to avoid misidentification with actual 39th BG aircraft. The airplane was named while still at Wendover but the nose art was not applied until after the atomic missions. It arrived too late to participate in other combat operations and participated in two practice flights subsequent to the atomic attacks. On August 9, 1945, as part of the second atomic bomb mission, it was flown by another crew as the weather reconnaissance aircraft for the secondary target of

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

. ''Laggin' Dragon'' returned to the United States in November 1945, based with the 509th CG at

Roswell Army Air Field Roswell may refer to: * Roswell incident Places in the United States * Roswell, Colorado, a former settlement now part of Colorado Springs * Roswell, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta * Roswell, Idaho * Roswell, New Mexico, known for the purported ...

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...

. In June 1946 it was part of the

Operation Crossroads Operation Crossroads was a pair of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. They were the first nuclear weapon tests since Trinity in July 1945, and the first detonations of nuclear devices since the ...

task force based on

Kwajalein Kwajalein Atoll (; Marshallese: ) is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). The southernmost and largest island in the atoll is named Kwajalein Island, which its majority English-speaking residents (about 1,000 mostly U.S. civil ...

. In June 1949 it was transferred to the 97th Bomb Group at Biggs Air Force Base,

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, and in April 1950 was converted to a TB-29 trainer at Kelly Air Force Base,

, and 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 was subsequently assigned to: * 10th Radar Calibration Squadron,

Yokota Air Base , is a Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) and United States Air Force (USAF) base in the Tama Area, or Western Tokyo. It occupies portions of Akishima, Fussa, Hamura, Mizuho, Musashimurayama, and Tachikawa. The base houses 14,000 perso ...

, Japan (September 1952), * 6023rd Radar Evaluation Flight, Yokota AB (March 1954), Johnson Air Base, Japan (July 1956), * 6431st Air Base Group,

Naha Air Base , formally known as the , is an air base of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force formerly under control of the United States Air Force. It is located at Naha Airport on the Oroku Peninsula in Naha, Okinawa, Japan. History Imperial Period Naha Air ...

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

(July 1958), * 51st Air Base Group, Naha AB (July 1960), where it was dropped from inventory and scrapped.

Nagasaki mission crew

Crew A-2 *Edward M. Costello, Air Commander *Harry B. Davis, Co-Pilot *Thomas H. Brumagin, Flight Engineer *Robert J. Petrolli, Navigator *John L. Downey, Bombardier *James McGlennon, Ground Crew *Carleton McEachern, Tail Gunner *David Purdon, Radio Operator *Maurice Clark, Asst. Flight Engineer *James Bryant, Radar Operator Crew B-8 (regularly assigned to ''

Top Secret Classified information is material that a government body deems to be sensitive information that must be protected. Access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of people with the necessary security clearance and need to kn ...

'') * 1st Lt. Charles F. McKnight, airplane commander * 2nd Lt. Jacob Y. Bontekoe, co-pilot * 2nd Lt. Jack Widowsky, navigator * 2nd Lt. Franklin H. MacGregor, bombardier * 1st Lt. George H. Cohen, flight engineer * Sgt. Lloyd J. Reeder, radio operator * T/Sgt. William F. Orren, radar operator * Sgt. Roderick E. Legg, tail gunner * Carleton C. McEachern, Tail Gunner * Cpl. Donald O. Cole, Assistant engineer, scanner

Other aircraft named ''Laggin' Dragon''

Three FB-111A strategic bombers 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 th ...

, serials 68-0269, 68-0274 and 68-0284, carried the name and original nose art of ''Laggin' Dragon'' on their 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 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 to the nor ...

, in the 1970s and 1980s.

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
* MPHPA . Manhattan Project Heritage Preservation Association, Inc., 3 August 2005. Web.
Atomic Heritage Foundation Hiroshima and Nagasaki Missions -- Planes & Crews

External links

Tribute website with color photo of nose artNational Museum of Nuclear Science & History PastPerfect Online Collection
{{B-29 family Laggin' Dragon (B-29) Boeing B-29 Superfortress Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki