Aircraft · United States · 1944-1945
Boeing B-29 Superfortress
heavy bomber
The pressurized, remotely-gunned B-29 was the most expensive weapons program of the war, costing more than the Manhattan Project itself, and it was the only aircraft able to carry the atomic bombs. Flown first from Chinese bases and then from the Marianas, it firebombed 67 Japanese cities under Curtis LeMay before Enola Gay and Bockscar dropped Little Boy and Fat Man from its bomb bay in August 1945. Iwo Jima was seized largely to give crippled B-29s an emergency landing field.
| crew | 11 |
|---|---|
| top speed | 574 km/h |
| bomb load | 9,000 kg |
| range | 5,230 km |
| produced | 3,970 |