The crowd moved back as the great engines fired up. The long propellers began spinning, the engines roared, and the airplanes taxied to the edges of Runways A and B. The Enola Gay, showing no running lights, started its takeoff run at 2:45. With a 5-ton atomic bomb and a full load of fuel, the strike plane required nearly the entire length of runway to get off the ground. The Great Artiste, the instrument plane, took off exactly two minutes later on Runway B, followed two minutes later by the second observer plane, Necessary Evil. The three planes banked north and began climbing.
