The Enola Gay was assigned to the U.S. Army Air Force's 509th Composite Group and flew the August 6 mission out of Tinian, a small island in the Mariana Islands chain. The plane was one of only 15 B-29s modified to deliver nuclear bombs. The Enola Gay was modified at Offutt Air Force Base to hold the atomic bomb. Its crew had undergone training at Wendover Army Air Field in Wendover, Utah.

Colonel Paul Tibbets, normally commander of the group, elected to fly the mission himself. Thus, he selected a plane from his group and renamed the plane after his mother Enola Gay Tibbets.

The Enola Gay has been fully restored and is now on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles International Airport.

The Boeing B-29 Superfortress (Boeing Model 341/345) was a four-engine heavy bomber flown by the United States Army Air Force. It was one of the largest aircraft of World War II to see active service. When it entered service, it was one of the most advanced bombers of its time, featuring innovations such as a pressurized cabin, a central fire-control system, and remote-controlled machine gun turrets. It was designed to be a high altitude daytime bomber, but was most used in low-altitude night time incendiary bombing. It was the primary weapons platform used in the United States fire-bombing campaign against Japan in the final months of World War II, and B-29s carried the atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Unlike many other bombers, the B-29 remained in service long after World War II ended, a few being employed as flying television transmitters for Stratovision. By the time it was retired in the 1960s, some 3,900 planes had been built.