Enola Gay Flight Path
Hiroshima Log of the Enola Gay
The Enola Gay left Tinian at 2:45 am, accompanied by two other B-29s: The Great Artiste and Necessary Evil. These planes rendezvoused over Iwo Jima and set course for Japan. At 9:12 am (Tinian time), the bomb run began. The release at 8:15 AM (Hiroshima time) went as planned, and the Little Boy bomb took 53 seconds to fall from the aircraft flying at 31,060 feet (9,470 m) to the predetermined detonation height about 1,968 feet (600 m) above the city.
The three planes then returned directly back to Tinian Island, touching down at 2:58 pm, after 12 hours 13 minutes. The Great Artiste and Necessary Evil followed shortly thereafter. The planes were met by several hundred people, including journalists and photographers