Vol. 19, No. 1 Newsletter of the China Lake Museum Foundation Winter 2013 Page 1 Secret Weapons of the Secret City Fat Man and Little Boy. Of all the ―weapons that win wars,‖ the ones that can best lay claim to the title are the first atomic bombs, Fat Man and Little Boy, which helped to end World War II. China Lake was a major contributor to the success of those weapons. The U.S. initiated a program in 1942, under the Army Corps of Engineers, to build a weapon that would allow the U.S. to end the war without having to invade Japan. Several large engineering and production centers were set up at remote sites including sites in Tennessee, Washington (state), New Mexico, and California. In 1945, China Lake (then known as the Naval Ordnance Test Station or NOTS) carried out Project Camel, the code name for the station’s involvement in the Manhattan Project. China Lake’s Role: Non-Nuclear Components. An atomic bomb is essentially a conventional bomb with a nuclear core. The China Lake and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) Team, experts at conventional explosives, was tasked to develop the non-nuclear explosive components of the atomic bomb; the conventional explosives were used to trigger the nuclear explosion. China Lake also performed detonator testing; mixed, melted, cast, and machined explosive shapes; air-dropped hundreds of bomb components and shapes from B-29 bombers; studied and solved flight problems; and conducted aero- ballistic tests to optimize aerodynamics and to test fuze functions. The team also checked out equipment procedures to be used in the tactical delivery of the atom bomb. Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Little Boy uranium-based atomic bomb was air dropped over Hiroshima, Japan from the Enola Gay on August 6, 1945 and exploded with a force equivalent to 12,500 tons of TNT. On august 9, Fat Man, an implosion-type plutonium-based atomic bomb, destroyed Nagasaki with a blast equal to more than 20,000 tons of TNT. The bombings brought a swift end to one of the bloodiest wars in human history. China Lake developed and tested many of the non-nuclear components and the conventional explosives necessary for both types of bombs to work. Research and Development. Two methods for nuclear fission were studied. One method involved a special gun to fire uranium. The second method involved an implosion method using plutonium. Both methods were used. The first problem was finding reliable detonators with incredibly fast action, a millionth of a second, and multiple detonations timed to within microseconds. China Lake loaded and test fired the new detonators made in Pasadena. China Lake, at its Salt Wells Pilot Plant, also cast and machined precision high explosive lenses that focused blast waves to create the phenomenal heat and pressure required for the plutonium core to fission. The actual nuclear components of the bomb were developed at Los Alamos, New Mexico. No nuclear components were ever developed or tested at China Lake. Testing. Aerodynamically, the early bomb configurations were incapable of accurate flight. Hundreds of drop tests with different fins and weight distributions were required to solve the problem. This work was conducted at China Lake and several other sites around the country. The first dummy bomb dropped at China Lake from 25,000 feet was buried so deep that crews worked for days to recover it, and the hole that was left could have accommodated a ten-story building. Only dummy bombs (no nuclear warheads) were dropped (Continued on Page 2) , OCR Text: Vol. 19, No. 1 Newsletter of the China Lake Museum Foundation Winter 2013 Page 1 Secret Weapons of the Secret City Fat Man and Little Boy. Of all the ―weapons that win wars,‖ the ones that can best lay claim to the title are the first atomic bombs, Fat Man and Little Boy, which helped to end World War II. China Lake was a major contributor to the success of those weapons. The U.S. initiated a program in 1942, under the Army Corps of Engineers, to build a weapon that would allow the U.S. to end the war without having to invade Japan. Several large engineering and production centers were set up at remote sites including sites in Tennessee, Washington (state), New Mexico, and California. In 1945, China Lake (then known as the Naval Ordnance Test Station or NOTS) carried out Project Camel, the code name for the station’s involvement in the Manhattan Project. China Lake’s Role: Non-Nuclear Components. An atomic bomb is essentially a conventional bomb with a nuclear core. The China Lake and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) Team, experts at conventional explosives, was tasked to develop the non-nuclear explosive components of the atomic bomb; the conventional explosives were used to trigger the nuclear explosion. China Lake also performed detonator testing; mixed, melted, cast, and machined explosive shapes; air-dropped hundreds of bomb components and shapes from B-29 bombers; studied and solved flight problems; and conducted aero- ballistic tests to optimize aerodynamics and to test fuze functions. The team also checked out equipment procedures to be used in the tactical delivery of the atom bomb. Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Little Boy uranium-based atomic bomb was air dropped over Hiroshima, Japan from the Enola Gay on August 6, 1945 and exploded with a force equivalent to 12,500 tons of TNT. On august 9, Fat Man, an implosion-type plutonium-based atomic bomb, destroyed Nagasaki with a blast equal to more than 20,000 tons of TNT. The bombings brought a swift end to one of the bloodiest wars in human history. China Lake developed and tested many of the non-nuclear components and the conventional explosives necessary for both types of bombs to work. Research and Development. Two methods for nuclear fission were studied. One method involved a special gun to fire uranium. The second method involved an implosion method using plutonium. Both methods were used. The first problem was finding reliable detonators with incredibly fast action, a millionth of a second, and multiple detonations timed to within microseconds. China Lake loaded and test fired the new detonators made in Pasadena. China Lake, at its Salt Wells Pilot Plant, also cast and machined precision high explosive lenses that focused blast waves to create the phenomenal heat and pressure required for the plutonium core to fission. The actual nuclear components of the bomb were developed at Los Alamos, New Mexico. No nuclear components were ever developed or tested at China Lake. Testing. Aerodynamically, the early bomb configurations were incapable of accurate flight. Hundreds of drop tests with different fins and weight distributions were required to solve the problem. This work was conducted at China Lake and several other sites around the country. The first dummy bomb dropped at China Lake from 25,000 feet was buried so deep that crews worked for days to recover it, and the hole that was left could have accommodated a ten-story building. Only dummy bombs (no nuclear warheads) were dropped (Continued on Page 2) , China Lake Museum,China Laker - Newsletter,China Laker 2010s,China Laker 2013,Newsletter Winter 2013.pdf,Newsletter Winter 2013.pdf Page 1, Newsletter Winter 2013.pdf Page 1