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Gun-assembly is the simplest and most reliable way to combine several sub-critical masses of active material, but some Los Alamos theoreticians had also considered implosions almost from the outset. The idea is that the two smaller pieces will combine to form a critical mass and stay intact long enough to detonate before the pent-up propellant blows the cannon barrel and its contents apart. It requires one piece of active material to be loaded into a cannon and fired into another piece mounted in a plug in the cannon's muzzle. The less complicated of the two techniques was called the 'gun method. The Los Alamos team had also looked at various ways of assembling active materials to make a weapon, but they focused upon two specific means of reaching 'critical mass' - the minimum amount of active material required to achieve a nuclear detonation. Huge plants for separating U235 were already under construction at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and plutonium reactors were being built on the Columbia River near Hanford, Washington. The Manhattan Project scientists knew that there were several "active" elements particularly well-suited for making atomic bombs - an isotope of uranium (U235), and plutonium, an 'artificial element made by bombarding uranium with neutrons in a nuclear reactor.
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For the next three years, the well-guarded compound at Los Alamos hosted the greatest single gathering of scientific genius in history.īy the spring of 1943, Los Alamos' theoreticians were ready to give shape to the weapon their calculations had proven possible. Robert Oppenheimer chose a secret research site in the mountains of northern New Mexico - a remote mesa then owned by a boarding school called the Los Alamos School for Boys. The following winter, Brigadier (later Major) General Leslie Groves and Dr.
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The Army Corps of Engineers established the Manhattan Engineering District in June 1942 to oversee the design and production of atomic bombs. Much of the information is available in published sources, but some lesser-known details come from declassified records held in various government archives. What follows is a brief survey of the aircraft used in the course of developing and delivering the first atomic bombs. The simple fact is, even if your modeling interests favor something other than WWII aircraft, it's hard NOT to have heard about these two planes - a huge literature has developed about their missions, and about the Manhattan Project in general.
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The issue of how to display the Enola Gay has become something of a political hot potato for the Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum. The two Boeing B-29 Superfortresses involved, Enola Gay and Bock's Car, are both in museums. The Aircraft of the Manhattan Project By George Cully, IPMS #2290Īugust 1995 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.