'Enola Gay', the bomber which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The aircraft is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress. It was named 'Enola Gay' after the mother of the pilot Paul Tibbets. At 8.15 am on 6 August 1945, this aircraft dropped a nuclear bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. The bomb, named 'Little Boy', was the first nuclear device used in anger. Detonating about 500 metres above the city, the bomb exploded with an energy equivalent to about 15,000 tons of TNT. 155,200 people died, either during the explosion itself or from immediate effects of radiation. This photo was taken in 1945.