Big Stink ( B - 29 ) Big Stink was the name of a Boeing B - 29 - 40 - MO Superfortress bomber ( Victor number 90 ) that participated in the atomic bomb attack on Nagasaki , Japan on August 9 , 1945 . Assigned to the 393d 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 " . History . B - 29 - 40 - MO 44 - 27354 was built at the Glenn L . Martin Aircraft Plant 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 North Field , Tinian on June 19 and arrived on June 24 . It was originally assigned the Victor ( unit - assigned identification ) 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 ( 1st Lt . 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 393d 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 " Dave ' s Dream " was transferred to the 97th Bomb Group 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 . Nagasaki mission crew . Crew C - 14 ( normally assigned to " Necessary Evil " ; 1st Lt . Norman Ray ) The crew were joined by two British observers : Other aircraft named " Big Stink " . A FB - 111A strategic bomber of the USAF 509th Bomb Wing , 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 .