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As a result, the bomb designers faced several new problems: 1) How to detonate the bombs at 1500 feet above the ground while it is falling at 1000 feet per second. Therefore the plane should fly at a high altitude. Los Alamos scientists recognized that an atomic explosion from a bomb dropped from low altitude would destroy the B-29. Atomic bombs with 30,000 times the explosive power had to be detonated in the air at heights proportional to the size of the explosion. In a Statement of Authenticity produced by Jeppson when he sold his own set of plugs at auction in 2002, he explains the challenges facing the Project Alberta team: "Before this time, bombs dropped from aircraft detonated by striking the ground.
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Doll, the leader of the Fusing Team on Project Alberta, the group tasked with designing the bomb itself and its delivery over the target. He was a Yale, Harvard, and MIT-educated electrical engineer assigned to work on bombing missions with the Los Alamos scientists. 2nd Lieutenant Morris Jeppson was one of two men responsible for arming the atomic bomb "Little Boy", L-11, aboard the Enola Gay's flight from Tinian to Japan. The race to develop nuclear weapons during World War II successfully culminated in the development of two types of bomb, Little Boy, dropped over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and "Fat Man" dropped over Nagasaki a few days later. This last set is presumed to have been given to Parsons by Jeppson. Jeppson's own set was sold in Butterfields Auctions in 2002, now privately owned, and there is a further set in the Naval Museum Washington D.C., a set that belonged to Deak Parsons, who also flew on the Enola Gay as Senior Military Technical Observer. This set was given by Weapons Test Officer Jeppson to his superior Edward Doll, the day after the flight. ONE OF ONLY THREE SURVIVING SETS OF BOMB PLUGS, THE ONLY SURVIVING RELICS OF "LITTLE BOY," THE FIRST ATOMIC BOMB DETONATED OVER HIROSHIMA. Doll (Head of Fusing Team) on Augby descent through the family of Edward B. Provenance: Lieutenant Morris Jeppson (Weapons Test Officer on the flight of the Enola Gay) Gift to Dr. Jeppson on June 11, 2002, at the time he offered his identical set of plugs at auction through Butterfields Auctioneers in San Francisco (a forerunner of American branch of Bonhams). With a copy of a Statement of Authenticity produced by Morris R. The label for the red plug an inspection card for L-11 signed and dated 7/31/45, and the card for the green plug a written statement signed by both Doll ans Jeppson. Each plug made of composite metal and wood, 3 inches long and 1 inch in diameter, each housed in a custom shadow box with original annotated inspection tags mounted on the reverse. We were all dumbfounded.A Green safety plug and a red arming plug from L-11, "Little Boy", the First Atomic Bomb dropped on Japan. "We just looked at each other we didn't talk.
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"Things were very, very quiet," Gackenbach says. The plane circled twice around the mushroom cloud and then turned to head home. He got out of his seat, quickly picked up his camera and took two photographs out the navigator's side window.
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The first thing Gackenbach saw was a blinding light and then the start of a mushroom cloud. Then, the radio went dead: that was the signal from the Enola Gay that the bomb had been released. "We were not told anything about the cloud, just don't go through it."Īs they made their final approach to Hiroshima, they were flying 30,000 feet over the city. "We were told that once the explosion occurred, we should not look directly at it, that we should not go through the cloud," he says. Gackenbach was part of the 10-man crew that flew on the Necessary Evil. The atomic bomb explosion photographed from 30,000 feet over Hiroshima on Aug. They had different engines, fewer guns and a larger bomb bay. Their planes were reconfigured B-29 Superfortress bombers. The 509th Composite Group, lead by Tibbets, spent months training in Wendover, Utah, before being shipped off to an American air base on the Pacific island of Tinian. Tibbets said it would be dangerous but if they were successful, it could end the war. Paul Tibbets, who was recruiting officers for a special mission. After completing his training, he was approached by Col. Gackenbach enlisted in the Army Aviation Cadet Program in 1943. Today, the 95-year-old is the only surviving crew member of those three planes.
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Army Air Corps and a navigator on the mission. Russell Gackenbach was a second lieutenant in the U.S. There were three strike planes that flew over Hiroshima that day: the Enola Gay, which carried the bomb, and two observation planes, the Great Artiste and the Necessary Evil. It was the first time a nuclear weapon had been used in warfare. 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Russell Gackenbach was the navigator aboard the Necessary Evil.