The Enola Gay was a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber aircraft that was used by the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. It was named after the mother of the pilot, Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. The Enola Gay was the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. This bombing marked the beginning of the end of World War II and the start of the nuclear age.