One of the most innovative inventions of the 20th century was the atomic bomb. A weapon capable of destroying anything that is around once it is launched, and whose impact can be felt for hundreds of kilometers around. Deadly, deadly and virtually impossible to survive when it explodes. It has been almost eighty years since the first atomic bomb was dropped, used in the aftermath of World War II through the Enola Gay, an American B-29 bomber.
This first atomic bomb was developed as part of the manhattan project for the United States. The device was called “Trinity” and was successfully detonated at a test site in the Alamogordo Desert near Los Alamos, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945. The bomb used a technology known as nuclear fission, which released a massive amount of energy by splitting the nuclei of heavy atoms, such as uranium-235 or plutonium-239. The explosion was equivalent to approximately 20 kilotons of TNT and marked the first controlled use of nuclear power for military purposes.
After the successful test of the Trinity pump, two atomic bombs were used in combat during the war. The first was launched over Hiroshima and the second over Nagasaki, both in Japan. The use of these weapons caused the surrender of Japan and ended World War II. However, it also generated intense debate about the ethical and humanitarian consequences of the use of nuclear weapons, which led to the dawn of the nuclear age and the arms race during the Cold War.
Enola Gay, the bomber who dropped the first atomic bomb in history
And all of that was made possible through the Enola Gay, named after the pilot’s mother, Colonel Paul Tibbets, whose name was Enola Gay Tibbets.
With a wingspan of 45 meters and covered with a polished aluminum that was almost a mirror, it was a symbol of mass destruction. On August 6, 1945, during the last days of World War II, the Enola Gay carried out the mission called “Operation Centerboard I”. The atomic bomb, nicknamed “Little Boy,” was dropped on Hiroshima, causing unprecedented devastation and the deaths of tens of thousands of people. Later, on August 9, it would be the launch over Nagasaki.
The maximum speed it could reach was 587 kilometers per hour, with a range of 9,000 kilometers. Today, the Enola Gay stands in exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum of the United States, located in Washington DCand is considered a historical symbol of the events that led to the end of World War II and the beginning of the nuclear age.
