April 11, 1950 -- Manzano Base, New Mexico
CDI: The New York Times reported the B-29 crashed in a "remote secret area of Sandia Special Weapons Base . . . and burned, shooting up flames visible for fifteen miles." Manzano Mountain was used as a "dead storage" site where outmoded weapons were stored. The B-29 was the United States' first nuclear delivery aircraft and comprised the majority of our strategic bomber force through 1952. The Enola Gay was a B-29 which dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. By June 1948 only 32 B-29s were modified to deliver nuclear weapons. All were assigned to the 509th Bomb Group. The B-29 was operational from 1943-1954; 3970 were built.