The Great Artiste The Great Artiste was a U . S . Army Air Forces Silverplate B - 29 bomber ( B - 29 - 40 - MO 44 - 27353 , Victor number 89 ) , assigned to the 393d Bomb Squadron , 509th Composite Group . The name purportedly referred to the talents of the bombardier , Captain Kermit Beahan . It flew 12 training and practice missions in which it bombed Japanese - held Pacific islands and dropped pumpkin bomb s on targets in Japan . It was the only aircraft to participate in both the bombing of Hiroshima and the bombing of Nagasaki , albeit as an observation aircraft on each mission . After the war ended it returned with the 509th Composite Group to Roswell Army Air Field , New Mexico . It was scrapped in September 1949 after being heavily damaged in an accident at Goose Bay Air Base , Labrador , the year before . Aircraft history . Built at the Glenn L . Martin Aircraft Plant at Omaha , Nebraska , " The Great Artiste " ( B - 29 44 - 27353 ) was a Silverplate B - 29 Superfortress bomber . It was accepted by the Army Air Forces on 20 April 1945 , and flown to Wendover Army Air Field , Utah , by its assigned crew C - 15 , commanded by First Lieutenant Charles D . Albury , in May . It departed Wendover for North Field , Tinian on 22 June . It was originally assigned Victor ( unit - assigned identification ) number 9 , but on 1 August it was given the circle R tail markings of the 6th Bombardment Group as a security measure , and it had its Victor number changed to 89 to avoid misidentification with actual 6th Bombardment Group aircraft . Its nose art was painted after the Nagasaki mission . The name purportedly referred to the talents of the bombardier , Captain Kermit Beahan , with both the Norden bombsight and with women . In addition to its use on the nuclear bomb missions , " The Great Artiste " was flown by five different crews on 12 training and practice missions . It flew bombing missions against Rota on 4 July , Truk on 8 July , and Marcus on 9 July . It returned to bomb Rota again on 12 and 14 July , and bombed Guguan on 18 and 19 July . It was flown by Albury and crew C - 15 on two combat missions , one of which was aborted , and the other in which it used a pumpkin bomb to attack the railroad yards at Kobe on 24 July . Captain Bob Lewis and crew B - 9 flew it to drop a pumpkin bomb on an industrial target in Koriyama on 29 July . Flown by 393d commander , Major Charles W . Sweeney , it was assigned to the Hiroshima mission on 6 August 1945 , as the blast measurement instrumentation aircraft . On the mission to bomb Nagasaki on 9 August 1945 , it was to have been the aircraft carrying the bomb , but the mission schedule had been moved forward two days because of weather considerations , and the instrumentation had not yet been removed from the aircraft . To avoid delaying the mission , Sweeney traded airplanes with the crew of " Bockscar " to carry the Fat Man atomic bomb to Nagasaki . Captain Frederick C . Bock and his C - 13 crew flew " The Great Artiste " to Nagasaki on its instrument support mission , and landed with it on Okinawa at the conclusion of the mission . It was the only aircraft to participate in both missions . In November 1945 it returned with the 509th Composite Group to Roswell Army Air Field , New Mexico , where it remained for the rest of its flying career , except for a brief period when it was assigned to Task Force 1 . 5 for Operation Crossroads nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll in July 1946 . It returned to the 509th , now designated the 509th Bombardment Group , in September . On 3 September 1948 , during a polar navigation training mission , it developed an engine problem after takeoff from Goose Bay Air Base , Labrador , and ran off the end of the runway when attempting to land . Heavily damaged , it never flew again , and was eventually scrapped at Goose Bay in September 1949 , despite its historical significance . Displays . A representation of " The Great Artiste " is on static display at the " Spirit Gate " of Whiteman Air Force Base , Missouri , now home base of the 509th Operations Group . The aircraft , originally B - 29 44 - 61671 , which served as an SB - 29 " Super Dumbo " rescue aircraft during the Korean War , was refurbished to depict " The Great Artiste " and moved to Whiteman after the closure of Pease Air Force Base in 1991 . Hiroshima mission crew . Crew C - 15 ( normally assigned to " The Great Artiste " ) : Project Alberta observers aboard for Hiroshima mission : Nagasaki mission crew . Crew C - 13 ( normally assigned to " Bockscar " ) : Observers aboard :