Big Stink
Encyclopedia
Big Stink was the name of a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber (victor number 90) that participated in the atomic bomb attack on Nagasaki
, Japan on August 9, 1945. Assigned to the 393rd Bomb Squadron, 509th Composite Group
, it was used as a camera plane in support of the bomb-carrying Bockscar
, to photograph the explosion and effects of the bomb, and also to carry scientific observers. The mission was flown by crew C-14 but with Group Operations Officer Major James I. Hopkins, Jr., as the aircraft commander.
Victor 90 left without one of the support members when Major Hopkins ordered Dr. Robert Serber
of Project Alberta
to leave the plane because the scientist had forgotten his parachute, reportedly after the B-29 had already taxied onto the runway. Since Serber was the only crew member who knew how to operate the high-speed camera, Hopkins had to be instructed by radio from Tinian on its use.
The aircraft failed to make its rendezvous with the remainder of the strike flight, which completed the mission without it. It did however arrive at Nagasaki in time to photograph the effects of the blast albeit at 39,000 ft rather than the planned 30,000 ft, then recovered at Yontan Airfield, Okinawa with both Bockscar
and The Great Artiste
.
at Omaha, Nebraska
, Big Stink was accepted by the Army Air Forces on April 20, 1945, and flown to Wendover Army Air Field, Utah
, by its assigned crew A-5 (Lt.Col. Thomas J. Classen, Aircraft Commander and group deputy commander) in May. It departed Wendover for Tinian
on June 19 and arrived on June 24.
It was originally assigned the victor number 10 but on August 1 was given the circle R tail markings of the 6th Bomb Group as a security measure and had its victor changed to 90 to avoid misidentification with actual 6th BG aircraft. On July 23, 1945, with Col. Paul Tibbets
at the controls, it dropped a dummy Little Boy
bomb assembly off Tinian to test its radar
altimeter
detonators.
On August 6, 1945, Big Stink was flown by crew B-8 (Capt. Charles McKnight) as a back-up spare but landed on Iwo Jima
when all other aircraft in the flight continued on. The airplane was reassigned to crew C-12 (Capt. Herman S. Zahn) immediately following the Nagasaki mission, who named the airplane and had nose art applied.
Big Stink also flew 12 training and practice missions, and two combat missions to drop pumpkin bomb
s on industrial targets at Nagaoka
and Hitachi
, both flown by Classen and crew A-5. Big Stink was flown by more crews (9 of the 15) on operational missions than any other 393rd BS B-29.
After World War II it served with the 509th CG at Roswell Army Air Field
. In April 1946 it was assigned to Operation Crossroads
, and renamed Dave's Dream by its crew in honor of Captain David Semple, a bombardier who had been killed in the crash of another B-29 on March 7, 1946, near Albuquerque, New Mexico
. Semple had been a bombardier in many of the 155 test drops for the Manhattan Project
. On July 1, 1946, Dave's Dream dropped the Fat Man
-type atomic bomb used in Test Able of Operation Crossroads at Bikini Atoll
.
In June 1949 Big Stink/Dave's Dream was transferred to the 97th Bomb Wing at Biggs Air Force Base, Texas. It was converted to a TB-29 training aircraft in April 1950 by the Oklahoma City Materiel Area at Tinker Air Force Base
.
It was subsequently assigned to:
In June 1959 it was moved into storage at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base
, Arizona
, and was dropped from the Air Force inventory in February 1960 as salvage.
The crew were joined by two British
observers:
, serial 67-7195, carried both the name and original nose art of Big Stink and the name Dave's Dream on its nosewheel doors while based at Pease Air Force Base, New Hampshire
, in the 1970s and 1980s.
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Nagasaki was founded by the Portuguese in the second half of the 16th century on the site of a small fishing village, formerly part of Nishisonogi District...
, Japan on August 9, 1945. Assigned to the 393rd Bomb Squadron, 509th Composite Group
509th Operations Group
The 509th Operations Group is the flying component of the United States Air Force 509th Bomb Wing , assigned to Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. It is equipped with all 20 of the USAF's B-2 Spirit stealth bombers...
, it was used as a camera plane in support of the bomb-carrying Bockscar
Bockscar
Bockscar, sometimes called Bock's Car or Bocks Car, is the name of the United States Army Air Forces B-29 bomber that dropped the "Fat Man" nuclear weapon over Nagasaki on 9 August 1945, the second atomic weapon used against Japan....
, to photograph the explosion and effects of the bomb, and also to carry scientific observers. The mission was flown by crew C-14 but with Group Operations Officer Major James I. Hopkins, Jr., as the aircraft commander.
Victor 90 left without one of the support members when Major Hopkins ordered Dr. Robert Serber
Robert Serber
Robert Serber was an American physicist who participated in the Manhattan Project. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; he was the eldest son of David Serber and Rose Frankel. He married Charlotte Leof in 1933. Rose Serber died in 1922; David married Charlotte's cousin Frances Leof in...
of Project Alberta
Project Alberta
Project Alberta was a section of the Manhattan Project which developed the means of delivering the first atomic bombs, used by the United States Army Air Forces against the Empire of Japan during World War II...
to leave the plane because the scientist had forgotten his parachute, reportedly after the B-29 had already taxied onto the runway. Since Serber was the only crew member who knew how to operate the high-speed camera, Hopkins had to be instructed by radio from Tinian on its use.
The aircraft failed to make its rendezvous with the remainder of the strike flight, which completed the mission without it. It did however arrive at Nagasaki in time to photograph the effects of the blast albeit at 39,000 ft rather than the planned 30,000 ft, then recovered at Yontan Airfield, Okinawa with both Bockscar
Bockscar
Bockscar, sometimes called Bock's Car or Bocks Car, is the name of the United States Army Air Forces B-29 bomber that dropped the "Fat Man" nuclear weapon over Nagasaki on 9 August 1945, the second atomic weapon used against Japan....
and The Great Artiste
The Great Artiste
The Great Artiste was a U.S. Army Air Forces Silverplate B-29 bomber , assigned to the 393rd Bomb Squadron, 509th Composite Group, that participated in the atomic bomb attacks on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Flown by 393rd commander Major Charles W...
.
History
B-29-40-MO 44-27354 was built at the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft PlantGlenn L. Martin Company
The Glenn L. Martin Company was an American aircraft and aerospace manufacturing company that was founded by the aviation pioneer Glenn L. Martin. The Martin Company produced many important aircraft for the defense of the United States and its allies, especially during World War II and the Cold War...
at Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
, Big Stink was accepted by the Army Air Forces on April 20, 1945, and flown to Wendover Army Air Field, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
, by its assigned crew A-5 (Lt.Col. Thomas J. Classen, Aircraft Commander and group deputy commander) in May. It departed Wendover for Tinian
Tinian
Tinian is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.-Geography:Tinian is about 5 miles southwest of its sister island, Saipan, from which it is separated by the Saipan Channel. It has a land area of 39 sq.mi....
on June 19 and arrived on June 24.
It was originally assigned the victor number 10 but on August 1 was given the circle R tail markings of the 6th Bomb Group as a security measure and had its victor changed to 90 to avoid misidentification with actual 6th BG aircraft. On July 23, 1945, with Col. Paul Tibbets
Paul Tibbets
Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr. was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force, best known for being the pilot of the Enola Gay, the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in the history of warfare. The bomb, code-named Little Boy, was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima...
at the controls, it dropped a dummy Little Boy
Little Boy
"Little Boy" was the codename of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets of the 393rd Bombardment Squadron, Heavy, of the United States Army Air Forces. It was the first atomic bomb to be used as a weapon...
bomb assembly off Tinian to test its radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
altimeter
Altimeter
An altimeter is an instrument used to measure the altitude of an object above a fixed level. The measurement of altitude is called altimetry, which is related to the term bathymetry, the measurement of depth underwater.-Pressure altimeter:...
detonators.
On August 6, 1945, Big Stink was flown by crew B-8 (Capt. Charles McKnight) as a back-up spare but landed on Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima, officially , is an island of the Japanese Volcano Islands chain, which lie south of the Ogasawara Islands and together with them form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The island is located south of mainland Tokyo and administered as part of Ogasawara, one of eight villages of Tokyo...
when all other aircraft in the flight continued on. The airplane was reassigned to crew C-12 (Capt. Herman S. Zahn) immediately following the Nagasaki mission, who named the airplane and had nose art applied.
Big Stink also flew 12 training and practice missions, and two combat missions to drop pumpkin bomb
Pumpkin bomb
Pumpkin bombs were conventional high explosive aerial bombs developed by the Manhattan Project and used by the United States Army Air Forces against Japan during World War II...
s on industrial targets at Nagaoka
Nagaoka
-Places:* Nagaoka, Niigata, Japan* Nagaoka-kyō, the capital of Japan from 784 to 794** Nagaokakyō, Kyoto, Japan, a city at the location of Nagaoka-kyō* Izunagaoka, Shizuoka, Japan, a former town in Izu Peninsula.-People:...
and Hitachi
Hitachi, Ibaraki
is a city located on the Pacific Ocean in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. Its name could be directly translated as "sunrise", but probably more appropriately adapted to "prosperous wealth" .-Demographics:...
, both flown by Classen and crew A-5. Big Stink was flown by more crews (9 of the 15) on operational missions than any other 393rd BS B-29.
After World War II it served with the 509th CG at Roswell Army Air Field
Walker Air Force Base
Walker Air Force Base is a closed United States Air Force base located three miles south of the central business district of Roswell, a city in Chaves County, New Mexico, US...
. In April 1946 it was assigned to Operation Crossroads
Operation Crossroads
Operation Crossroads was a series of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. It was the first test of a nuclear weapon after the Trinity nuclear test in July 1945...
, and renamed Dave's Dream by its crew in honor of Captain David Semple, a bombardier who had been killed in the crash of another B-29 on March 7, 1946, near Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 545,852 as of the 2010 Census and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. As...
. Semple had been a bombardier in many of the 155 test drops for the Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
. On July 1, 1946, Dave's Dream dropped the Fat Man
Fat Man
"Fat Man" is the codename for the atomic bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki, Japan, by the United States on August 9, 1945. It was the second of the only two nuclear weapons to be used in warfare to date , and its detonation caused the third man-made nuclear explosion. The name also refers more...
-type atomic bomb used in Test Able of Operation Crossroads at Bikini Atoll
Bikini Atoll
Bikini Atoll is an atoll, listed as a World Heritage Site, in the Micronesian Islands of the Pacific Ocean, part of Republic of the Marshall Islands....
.
In June 1949 Big Stink/Dave's Dream was transferred to the 97th Bomb Wing at Biggs Air Force Base, Texas. It was converted to a TB-29 training aircraft in April 1950 by the Oklahoma City Materiel Area at Tinker Air Force Base
Tinker Air Force Base
Tinker Air Force Base is a major U.S. Air Force base, with tenant U.S. Navy and other Department of Defense missions, located in the southeast Oklahoma City, Oklahoma area, directly south of the suburb of Midwest City, Oklahoma.-Overview:...
.
It was subsequently assigned to:
- 106th Radar Calibration Squadron, Sioux City Air Force BaseSioux Gateway Airport-History:The construction of Sioux City Army Air Base began in March 1942, about three months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Opened on 5 July 1942, it became a major training center during World War II for crew members of B-24 Liberators and B-17 Flying Fortresses...
, IowaIowaIowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
(October 1952) - 7th Radar Calibration Squadron, Sioux City AFB (September 1953), and
- 4677th Radar Evaluation Flight, Hill Air Force BaseHill Air Force BaseHill Air Force Base is a major U.S. Air Force Base located in northern Utah, just south of the city of Ogden, and near the towns of Clearfield, Riverdale, Roy, Sunset, and Layton. It is about north of Salt Lake City. The base was named in honor of Major Ployer Peter Hill of the U.S. Army Air...
, UtahUtahUtah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
(March 1954)
In June 1959 it was moved into storage at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base
Davis–Monthan Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located within the city limits, and approximately south-southeast of downtown, Tucson, Arizona....
, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, and was dropped from the Air Force inventory in February 1960 as salvage.
Nagasaki mission crew
Crew C-14 (normally assigned to Necessary Evil; Capt. Norman Ray)- Major James I. Hopkins, Jr., Aircraft Commander
- 2nd Lt. John E. Cantlon, Co-Pilot
- 2nd Lt. Stanley G. Steinke, Navigator
- 2nd Lt. Myron Faryna, Bombardier
- M/Sgt. George L. Brabenec, Flight Engineer
- Sgt. Francis X. Dolan, Radio Operator
- Cpl. Richard F. Cannon, Radar Operator
- Sgt. Martin G. Murray, Tail Gunner
- Sgt. Thomas A. Bunting, Assistant Engineer/Scanner
The crew were joined by two British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
observers:
- Group CaptainGroup CaptainGroup captain is a senior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countries. It ranks above wing commander and immediately below air commodore...
Leonard CheshireLeonard CheshireGroup Captain Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire, Baron Cheshire, VC, OM, DSO and Two Bars, DFC was a highly decorated British RAF pilot during the Second World War....
VCVictoria CrossThe Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....
, former commander of 617 Squadron, and official representative of the British Prime Minister - Professor William PenneyWilliam Penney, Baron PenneyWilliam George Penney, Baron Penney OM, KBE PhD, DSc, , FRS, FRSE, FIC, Hon FCGI was a British mathematician who was responsible for the development of British nuclear technology, following World War II...
, a member of Project AlbertaProject AlbertaProject Alberta was a section of the Manhattan Project which developed the means of delivering the first atomic bombs, used by the United States Army Air Forces against the Empire of Japan during World War II...
and the leading expert on the effects of nuclear weapons.
Other aircraft named Big Stink
A FB-111A strategic bomber of the USAF 509th Bomb Wing509th Bomb Wing
The 509th Bomb Wing is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the Air Force Global Strike Command, Eighth Air Force. It is stationed at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri....
, serial 67-7195, carried both the name and original nose art of Big Stink and the name Dave's Dream on its nosewheel doors while based at Pease Air Force Base, New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
, in the 1970s and 1980s.
