Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 (The Pacific War Trilogy Book 3)

by Ian W. Toll

An aircraft that dropped the new bomb was required to fly at least 8 miles away from the point at which the device was set to detonate. It would have forty seconds to complete the maneuver. That required a hard-banking 155-degree turn, during which the pilot would dive steeply to pick up speed. Tactical analysis of Japanese fighter defenses led Tibbets to conclude that they should remove most of the armament from the planes, and rely on speed and altitude to thwart interception. The 509th Composite Group would also have to oversee major alterations to the B-29, because the new bomb would not fit into the aircraft’s standard bomb bay. The group trained at Wendover using “pumpkin bombs,” which mimicked the size, weight, and ballistics profile of the uranium and plutonium weapons, named “Little Boy” and “Fat Man,” respectively.