12 Facts About Silverplate

Silverplate was the code reference for the United States Army Air Forces' participation in the Manhattan Project during World War II.

Originally the name for the aircraft modification project which enabled a B-29 Superfortress bomber to drop an atomic weapon, "Silverplate" eventually came to identify the training and operational aspects of the program as well.

Modifications began on a prototype Silverplate B-29 known as the "Pullman" in November 1943, and it was used for bomb flight testing at Muroc Army Air Field in California commencing in March 1944.

Seventeen production Silverplate aircraft were ordered in August 1944 to allow the 509th Composite Group to train with the type of aircraft they would have to fly in combat, and for the 216th Army Air Forces Base Unit to test bomb configurations.

An additional 19 Silverplate B-29s were ordered in July 1945, which were delivered between the end of the war and the end of 1947.

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Use of the Silverplate codename was discontinued after the war, but modifications continued under a new codename, Saddletree.

Silverplate project was initiated in June 1943 when Dr Norman F Ramsey from the Los Alamos Laboratory's E-7 Group identified the Boeing B-29 Superfortress as the only airplane in the United States inventory capable of carrying either type of the proposed weapons shapes: the tubular shape of the Thin Man, or the oval shape of the Fat Man.

Silverplate informed Arnold that there was now a second bomb shape under consideration, the Fat Man, and formally requested that further tests be carried out, that not more than three B-29s be modified to carry the weapons, and that the USAAF form and train a special unit to deliver the bombs.

Originally the name for the aircraft modification project for the B-29 to enable it to drop a nuclear weapon, Silverplate eventually came to identify the training and operational aspects of the program as well.

An additional 19 Silverplate B-29s were ordered in July 1945, which were delivered between the end of the war, and the end of 1947.

Only other United States Air Force combat unit to use the Silverplate B-29 was the 97th Bombardment Wing at Biggs Air Force Base in El Paso, Texas.

Use of the codename Silverplate was discontinued on 12 May 1947 because the codename had become compromised.