Tibbets piloted various observation aircraft and bombers, including the B-17, which he flew in bombing raids above German-occupied Europe in the summer of 1942. The aircraft would prove a game changer for the U.S.īy mid-1943, Tibbets began flying a new, innovative bomber: the B-29. military, says Kirk Otterson, from the Office of Nuclear and Military Affairs at Los Alamos National Laboratory. It was larger and faster than a B-17 and could fly higher and farther.
And, he adds, the B-29 could carry a larger bomb.
Nicknamed the Superfortress, the B-29 was a four-engine, propeller-driven bomber.
