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As part of the Manhattan Project, the American development and delivery of the world's first nuclear weapons on targets in Japan, that brought the Second World War to a close in August 1945, a squadron of modified Boeing B-29 Superfortresses was delivered to the U.S. Army Air Force's 509th Composite Group to accomplish the atomic mission.
Laggin' Dragon was the last of the fifteen Silverplate B-29s delivered to the 509th for use in the atomic bomb operation. Built at the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft plant at Omaha, Nebraska, it was accepted by the USAAF on June 15, 1945, after most of the 509th CG had already left Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, for Tinian. Assigned to Crew A-2 (Capt. Edward M. Costello, Aircraft Commander,) it was flown to Wendover in early July and briefly used in training and practice bombing missions.
On July 27, 1945, Costello and his crew flew the airplane from Wendover to Kirtland Army Air Field, Albuquerque, New Mexico, accompanied by another 509th B-29 and one from the Manhattan Project test unit at Wendover (216th Base Unit). There each loaded one of three Fat Man atomic bomb assemblies (without the plutonium core, which had left the day before by courier on one of the 509th CG's C-54 Skymaster transports) in its bomb bay for conveyance to Tinian.
The three bombers flew to Mather Army Air Field, California, on July 28, and took off for Hawaii on July 29. During takeoff from Mather, a panel door on Laggin' Dragon enclosing the life raft compartment opened and ejected the raft, which wrapped around the horizontal elevator on the tail and impeded the B-29'’s elevators. The aircraft struggled to stay aloft but the pilots managed to return safely to Mather. After removing and replacing some major tail assemblies, Laggin' Dragon and its cargo continued to Hawaii, finally reaching Tinian on August 2.
It was assigned the square P tail identifier of the 39th Bomb group as a security measure and given victor number 95 to avoid misidentification with actual 39th BG aircraft. The airplane was named while still at Wendover but the nose art was not applied until after the atomic missions, and referred to being one of the last of the squadron to receive overseas shipping orders and the 393rd Squadron's dragon insignia. It arrived too late to participate in other combat operations and participated in two practice flights subsequent to the atomic attacks.
The airplane returned to the United States in November 1945, based with the 509th CG at Roswell Army Air Field, New Mexico. In June 1946 it was part of the Operation Crossroads task force based on Kwajalein. In June 1949 it was transferred to the 97th Bomb Wing at Biggs Air Force Base, Texas, and in April 1950 was converted to a TB-29 trainer at Kelly Air Force Base, Texas, and the Oklahoma City Air Materiel Area at Tinker Air Force Base.
It was subsequently assigned to:
Crew B-8 (regularly assigned to Top Secret)
Three FB-111A strategic bombers of the USAF 509th Bomb Wing, serials 68-0269, 68-0274 and 68-0284, carried the name and original nose art of Laggin' Dragon on their nosewheel doors while based at Pease Air Force Base, New Hampshire, in the 1970s and 1980s.