Next Objective was the name of a Boeing B-29-36-MO Superfortress, 44-27299, Victor 86, modified to carry the atomic bomb in World War II.
Delivered on 20 March 1945, to the USAAF, it was assigned to crew A-3 (1st Lt. Ralph N. Devore, aircraft commander) and flown to Wendover Army Air Field, Utah.
Major Charles Sweeney, commanding officer of the 393d BS, used the bomber to rehearse procedures using a dummy "Little Boy" test assembly on 26 and 29 July.
The navigator assigned struck his head on the machinery that operated the nose landing gear as he exited the aircraft and was killed when his parachute did not deploy.
The pilotless Next Objective circled in a two-mile orbit before crashing 35 miles northeast of El Paso, where it exploded on impact.