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For the fictional bombs used by the Green Goblin, see Pumpkin Bomb (comics)

"Pumpkin bombs" were conventional high explosive aerial bombs developed by the Manhattan Project and used by the United States Army Air Forces against Japan during World War II. The Green Goblin is a name shared by several fictional Supervillains that appear in Comic books published by Marvel Comics. A Pumpkin Bomb was a Grenade used by the fictional character the Green Goblin. An explosive material is a material that either is chemically or otherwise Energetically unstable or produces a sudden expansion of the material usually accompanied A bomb is any of a range of devices that typically rely on the Exothermic Chemical reaction of an Explosive material to produce an extremely The World War II Manhattan Project developed the first Nuclear weapon (atomic bomb The United States Army Air Forces ( USAAF) was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The name "pumpkin bomb" resulted from the large ellipsoidal shape of the munition and was the actual reference term used in official documents. An ellipsoid is a type of quadric surface that is a higher dimensional analogue of an Ellipse. 486 of the bombs were built and 49 dropped on Japanese targets by the 509th Composite Group. The 509th Composite Group was an air combat unit of the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War and as the 509th Operations Group, is

The concept for the pumpkin bomb originated with Navy Captain William S. Parsons of the Ordnance Division at Los Alamos and USAAF Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, commander of the 509th CG, on December 13, 1944, as a means of providing continued realistic training for the B-29 crews assigned to drop the atomic bomb after their deployment to the Western Pacific. Rear Admiral William Sterling "Deak" Parsons ( November 26, 1901 - December 5, 1953) was an American Military Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL (previously known at various times as Site Y, Los Alamos Laboratory, and Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory) is a Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr ( February 23, 1915 &ndash November 1, 2007) was a Brigadier general in the United States Air Force Events 1294 - Saint Celestine V abdicates the papacy after only five months Celestine hoped to return to his previous life Year 1944 ( MCMXLIV) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from Nuclear reactions either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth 's Oceanic divisions The bomb would be a close but non-nuclear replication of the Fat Man plutonium bomb with the same ballistic and handling characteristics. "Fat Man" is the codename for the Atomic bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki, Japan, by the United States on August 9 External ballistics is the part of the science of Ballistics that deals with the behaviour of a non-powered projectile in flight Mission parameters would be similar to those of the actual atomic bomb missions and all targets located in the vicinity of the cities designated for atomic attack.

The development of the bomb was managed by the California Institute of Technology under the direction of Dr. The California Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Caltech) is a private, Coeducational research university located in Pasadena Charles C. Lauritsen. Charles Christian Lauritsen (April 4 1892&ndashApril 13 1968 was a Danish -born American Physicist. Specifications for the bomb required that it be carried in the forward bomb bay of a Silverplate B-29 and be fuzed to be effective against actual targets. The older name of the Indian city of Mumbai, is correctly spelled " Bombay " Silverplate was the code reference for the United States Army Air Forces participation in the Manhattan Project during World War II. In an Explosive, Pyrotechnic device or military Munition, a fuse (or fuze) is the part of the device that initiates function The bomb shells were manufactured by two Los Angeles, California, firms, Consolidated Steel Corporation and Western Pipe and Steel Company, while the tail assembly was produced by Centerline Company of Detroit, Michigan. Los Angeles (lɑˈsændʒələs los ˈaŋxeles in Spanish) is the largest City in the state of California and the American West Consolidated Steel Corporation built ships during World War II in two locations Wilmington California and Orange Texas. After initial development, management of the program was turned over to the U.S. Navy Bureau of Ordnance in May 1945. The Bureau of Ordnance (BuOrd was the US Navy 's organization responsible for the procurement storage and deployment of all naval ordnance, between the years 1862

Pumpkin bombs were produced in both inert and high explosive variants, with the inert versions filled with a cement-plaster-sand mixture combined with water to the density of the Composition B used in the high explosive versions. In the most general sense of the word a cement is a binder a substance which sets and hardens independently and can bind other materials together The term plaster can refer to plaster of Paris Lime plaster, or Cement plaster. Sand is a naturally occurring Granular material composed of finely divided rock and Mineral particles Composition B is an Explosive consisting of castable mixtures of RDX and TNT as well as in some instances additional desensitizing agents The filler of both variants had the same weight and weight distribution as the inner sphere used in the plutonium bomb. All of the inert versions were shipped from the manufacturers directly to Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, by rail, where they were used by the 216th Base Unit in flight testing of the bomb shape. Wendover Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base in Utah now known as Wendover Airport. The State of Utah (ˈjuːtɔː or) is a western state of the United States.

The pumpkin bombs were externally similar to the Fat Man bomb in size and shape, and both had the same 52-inch square tail assembly and single-point attachment lug. The pumpkin bomb had three contact fuses arranged in an equilateral triangle around the nose of the bomb while the atomic bomb had four fuse housings. Properties The area of an equilateral triangle with sides of length a\\! The atomic bomb had its sections bolted together but most if not all of the pumpkin bombs were welded with a four-inch hole used for filling the shell. The Fat Man also had four external mounting points for radar antennas which the pumpkin bombs did not have. Radar is a system that uses electromagnetic waves to identify the range altitude direction or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as Aircraft, ships An antenna is a Transducer designed to transmit or Receive electromagnetic waves In other words antennas convert electromagnetic waves into

The bombs intended as live ordnance were shipped to the Naval Ammunition Depot, McAlester, Oklahoma, for filling with explosives. McAlester is a city in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma, United States. The Composition B was poured as a slurry, solidified in a drying facility, sealed, and shipped by railroad to the Port Chicago Naval Magazine, California for shipment by sea to Tinian. Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial at the Concord Naval Weapons Station near Concord California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. Tinian (ˈtɪniən /ˌtiːniˈɑːn/ is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (14°59’51”N 145°37’39”E

The pumpkin bombs were twelve feet eight inches in length and five feet in maximum diameter. The most commonly-given weight for the bombs is 5. 26 tons, consisting of 3,800 pounds for the shell, 425 pounds for the tail assembly, and 6,300 pounds of filler. The shells were made of . 0375-inch steel plate and the tail assemblies from . Structural steel is Steel construction Material, a profile, formed with a specific Shape or cross section and certain standards of 20-inch aluminum plate. WikipediaNaming Sheet metal is simply Metal formed into thin and flat pieces It is one of the fundamental forms used in Metalworking, and can be cut and bent into a variety Although anecdotal sources attribute the name of the bombs to painting of them pumpkin color, there is no evidence that the bombs were ever painted other than the standard olive drab used by the Army Air Forces on all live ordnance. Pumpkin is a color that resembles Pumpkins The first recorded use of Pumpkin as a color name in English was in 1922 See also Green This article is about notable Tints and shades of the Color Green. (Campbell, The Silverplate Bombers, "Chapter Notes", Chapter 7 note 5, p. 220)

In addition to the live ordnance dropped on Japan, several hundred inert bombs were used by combat crews of the 509th's 393rd Bomb Squadron to test the ballistics of the bomb shape in conjunction with Project Alberta, and to train bombardiers in mission procedures before movement of the group overseas. Project Alberta was a section of the Manhattan Project which developed the means of delivering the first atomic bombs, used by the United States Army

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