This didn’t leave enough time to move the complex instrumentation equipment from The Great Artiste to Bockscar, so the two crews traded planes with each other for the historic flight. Weather considerations caused the fight to be moved from August 11 to August 9. Normally, Sweeney and his crew piloted an aircraft called The Great Artiste, and this plane provided the instrumentation and observation support for the drop on Hiroshima.įor the second mission to Japan, Sweeny and his crew were chosen to deliver Fat Man while Bock and crew were chosen to provide observation support. Sweeney had used Bockscar for more than 10 training and practice missions (it wasn’t Bock’s airplane after all, just named after him). The answer relates to the purposes of the planes for each occasion. Jacob Beser was the radar countermeasures officer on the Enola Gay at Hiroshima and on Bockscar at Nagasaki, the only person aboard the bombing aircraft on both atomic bomb missions. Apart from the Enola Gay, what was the name of the other plane that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki It was called Bockscar, or Bocks Car, named after its pilot. The question relates to why didn’t Captain Frederick Bock fly his own plane (Bockscar) during the second run. reprinted image of detonated atomic bomb signed by Col Paul Tibbets, Pilot, Capt Theodore Dutch van Kirk, Navigator, Major Tom Ferebee, Bombadier and. Fewer people are aware that Bockscar (sometimes called Bock’s Car) delivered the second nuclear weapon, Fat Man, to Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Most people are aware that the bomber Enola Gay delivered the first atomic weapon to Hiroshima.