Gen Tibbets (centre) always said he had no regrets
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The commander of the B-29 plane that dropped the first atomic bomb, on Hiroshima in Japan in World War II, has died at the age of 92.
Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr died at his home in Columbus, Ohio.
The five-ton "Little Boy" bomb was dropped on the morning of 6 August 1945, killing about 140,000 Japanese. Many others died later.
On the 60th anniversary of the bombing, the three surviving crew members of the Enola Gay said they had "no regrets".
Gen Tibbets had asked for no funeral nor headstone as he feared opponents of the bombing may use it as a place of protest, the friend, Gerry Newhouse, said.
Gen Tibbets said then: "Thousands of former soldiers and military family members have expressed a particularly touching and personal gratitude suggesting that they might not be alive today had it been necessary to resort to an invasion of the Japanese home islands to end the fighting."
clipped from: news.bbc.co.uk