Hiroshima Bomb Crew. At the briefing prior to flight of the Enola Gay, Captain William Sterling Parsons and Colonel Tibbets go over last minute data. Both are members of the crew that dropped the first atomic bomb. Only Tibbetts, Ferebee, and Parsons, knew the purpose of the mission. On August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay was used to drop, from an altitude of 31,600 feet, the "Little Boy" atomic weapon, destroying Hiroshima, Japan, at 8:16 a.m. local time. The airplane was flown by Col. Paul Tibbets, commander of the 509th Group, and had a crew of 11. Days before the mission, Tibbets named the airplane "Enola Gay" in honor of his mother. Enola Gay returned safely to its base on Tinian to great fanfare. The Enola Gay was accompanied by two other B-29s, Necessary Evil which was used to carry scientific observers, and as a camera plane to photograph the explosion and effects of the bomb and The Great Artiste instrumented for blast measurement. Enola Gay is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber.