Factors That Ended World War II

There are many factors that ended World War II; However, The bombs and the ship that dropped them were some of the most important. These bombs were known as the Fat Man and Little Boy, and the ship was the Boeing B-29 Superfortress “Enola Gay.”
How does an explosive nuclear chain reaction happen? An explosive nuclear chain reaction happens when a plentiful quantity of nuclear fuel, such as uranium or plutonium, is brought to form a critical mass. The nuclear chain reaction begins when the neutrons strike the heavy uranium or plutonium nucleus which splits releasing a tremendous amount of energy along with two or more neutrons which, in turn split more nuclei (“Little Boy and Fat Man”).
The first bomb dropped in World War II was the Little Boy.
The first implosion-type bomb used was called the “Gadget” which was detonated at the Trinity site on July 16, 1945. Implosion-type bombs are made of a core of subcritical plutonium surrounded by several thousand pounds of high-explosives designed so that when the bomb is detonated, the explosive force of the HE is aimed inwards, thereby crushing the plutonium into a supercritical state. The Fat Man bomb weighed ten thousand eight hundred pounds with a length of ten feet eight inches, and a diameter of sixty inches. The fuel of the bomb was highly enriched plutonium 239. The plutonium fuel weighed approximately thirteen and six tenths pounds, and was relatively the size of a softball. The plutonium core was surrounded by five thousand three hundred pounds of high explosives, this resulted in the plutonium core shrinking to the size of a tennis ball. The bomb initiator was beryllium. The components of the Fat Man bomb were ferried to Tinian Island aboard B-29’s of the 509th Composite Group. The efficiency of the Fat Man was ten times that of the Little Boy. Relatively one kilogram of plutonium had been fissioned. The explosive force of the Fat Man bomb was equivalent to twenty-one thousand tons of TNT. The use of the weapon was to be dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. The Nuclear Weaponeer of the Fat Man bomb was Commander Frederick Ashworth. The delivery of the bomb was by the
Army Air Corps leaders recognized the need for very long range bombers that exceeded the performance of the B-17 Flying Fortress. Several years of preliminary studies paralleled an ongoing fight those who insufficient utility in developing such an expensive and debatable aircraft. However, the Air Corps issued a requirement for the new bomber in February 1940. The request described an airplane that could carry a maximum bomb load of two thousand pounds at speeds of four hundred miles per hour, and a distance of five thousand miles. Boeing, Consolidated, Douglas, and Lockheed responded with an abundance of design proposals. The Army had been impressed with the Boeing design, and ordered a contract for two flyable prototypes in September 1940 (“Boeing B-29 Superfortress “Enola Gay””). The Enola Gay was built under a program titled “Silverplate.” This top secret program produced B-29 bombers that had been specially modified to do atomic bomb missions. The Enola Gay was part of the second batch of fifteen improved Silverplate bombers built between February and June of 1945. The Enola Gay was Boeing’s most sophisticated, propeller-driven, bomber during World War II. Boeing had installed advanced armament, propulsion, and avionics systems into the Enola Gay. The Enola Gay’s serial number, B-29-45-MO, 45-86292, had indicated that it was a B-29 built at the Martin Omaha plant built in block 45, and was ordered in fiscal year 1945. When deployed to the