1.
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
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Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base and census-designated place just east of Dayton, Ohio, in Greene and Montgomery counties. It includes both Wright and Patterson Fields, which were originally Wilbur Wright Field and Fairfield Aviation General Supply Depot, Patterson Field is approximately 10 miles northeast of Dayton, Wright Field is approximately 5 miles northeast of Dayton. The host unit at Wright-Patterson AFB is the 88th Air Base Wing, assigned to the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center and Air Force Materiel Command. The bases origins begin with the establishment of Wilbur Wright Field on 22 May and McCook Field in November 1917, McCook was used as a testing field and for aviation experiments. Wright was used as a field, Fairfield Aviation General Supply Depot, armorers’ school. McCooks functions were transferred to Wright Field when it was closed in October 1927, Wright-Patterson AFB was established in 1948 as a merger of Patterson and Wright Fields. In 1995, negotiations to end the Bosnian War were held at the resulting in the Dayton Agreement that ended the war. The 88th Air Base Wing is commanded by Col. John M. Devillier Its Command Chief Master Sergeant is Chief Master Sergeant John M. Mazza, the base had a total of 27,406 military, civilian and contract employees in 2010. The Greene County portion of the base is a census-designated place, Wright-Patterson AFB is one of the largest, most diverse, and organizationally complex bases in the Air Force with a long history of flight tests spanning from the Wright Brothers into the Space Age. It is the headquarters of the Air Force Materiel Command, one of the commands of the Air Force. It is also the base of the 445th Airlift Wing of the Air Force Reserve Command. Wright-Patterson is also the headquarters of the Aeronautical Systems Center and the Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson is the host of the annual United States Air Force Marathon which occurs the weekend closest to the Air Forces anniversary. The Wing reports to the Aeronautical Systems Center, a major development and their flight exhibition company and the Wright Company School of Aviation returned 1910–1916 to use the flying field. In 1918, Wilbur Wright Field agreed to let McCook Field use hangar and shop space as well as its enlisted mechanics to assemble, after World War I,347 German aircraft were brought to the United States—some were incorporated into the Army Aeronautical Museum. The training school at Wilbur Wright Field was discontinued, Wilbur Wright Field and the depot merged after World War I to form the Fairfield Air Depot. In 1924, the Committee presented the deeds to president Calvin Coolidge for the construction of a new engineering center. The entire acreage was designated Wright Field, which had such as the Headquarters, 5th Division Air Service. New facilities were built 1925–27 on the portion of Wright Field west of Huffman Dam to house all of the McCook Field functions being relocated, on 1 July 1931, the portion of Wright Field east of Huffman Dam was redesignated Patterson Field in honor of Lieutenant Frank Stuart Patterson
2.
Dayton, Ohio
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Dayton is the sixth-largest city in the U. S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Montgomery County. A small portion of the city extends into Greene County, the Dayton-Springfield-Greenville Combined Statistical Area had a population of 1,080,044 in 2010, making it the 43rd-largest in the United States. Dayton is within Ohios Miami Valley region, just north of the Cincinnati–Northern Kentucky metropolitan area, Dayton also hosts significant research and development in fields like industrial, aeronautical, and astronautical engineering that have led to many technological innovations. Much of this innovation is due in part to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, with the decline of heavy manufacturing, Daytons businesses have diversified into a service economy that includes insurance and legal sectors as well as healthcare and government sectors. Other than defense and aerospace, healthcare accounts for much of the Dayton areas economy, hospitals in the Greater Dayton area have an estimated combined employment of nearly 32,000 and a yearly economic impact of $6.8 billion. It is estimated that Premier Health Partners, a network, contributes more than $2 billion a year to the region through operating, employment. In 2011, Dayton was rated the No.3 city in the out of the top 50 cities in the United States by HealthGrades for excellence in health care. Many hospitals in the Dayton area are consistently ranked by Forbes, U. S. News & World Report, and HealthGrades for clinical excellence. Dayton is also noted for its association with aviation, the city is home to the National Museum of the United States Air Force and is the birthplace of Orville Wright, other well-known individuals born in the city include poet Paul Laurence Dunbar and entrepreneur John H. Patterson. Dayton is also known for its patents, inventions, and inventors that have come from the area. In 2008,2009, and 2010, Site Selection magazine ranked Dayton the No.1 mid-sized metropolitan area in the nation for economic development, also in 2010, Dayton was named one of the best places in the United States for college graduates to find a job. Dayton was founded on April 1,1796, by 12 settlers known as The Thompson Party and they traveled in March from Cincinnati up the Great Miami River by pirogue and landed at what is now St. Clair Street, where they found two small camps of Native Americans. Among them was Benjamin Van Cleve, whose memoirs provide insights into the Ohio Valleys history, two other groups traveling overland arrived several days later. In 1797, Daniel C. Cooper laid out Mad River Road, Ohio was admitted into the Union in 1803, and the city of Dayton was incorporated in 1805. The city was named after Jonathan Dayton, a captain in the American Revolutionary War who signed the U. S, constitution and owned a significant amount of land in the area. Historically, Dayton has been the home for many patents and inventions since the 1870s, according to the National Park Service, citing information from the U. S. Patent Office, Dayton had granted more patents per capita than any other U. S. city in 1890, the Wright brothers, inventors of the airplane, and Charles F. Kettering, world-renowned for his numerous inventions, hailed from Dayton. Paul Laurence Dunbar – a famous African-American poet and novelist – penned his most famous works in the late 19th century, innovation led to business growth in the region
3.
Ohio
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Ohio /oʊˈhaɪ. oʊ/ is a Midwestern state in the Great Lakes region of the United States. Ohio is the 34th largest by area, the 7th most populous, the states capital and largest city is Columbus. The state takes its name from the Ohio River, the name originated from the Iroquois word ohi-yo’, meaning great river or large creek. Partitioned from the Northwest Territory, the state was admitted to the Union as the 17th state on March 1,1803, Ohio is historically known as the Buckeye State after its Ohio buckeye trees, and Ohioans are also known as Buckeyes. Ohio occupies 16 seats in the United States House of Representatives, Ohio is known for its status as both a swing state and a bellwether in national elections. Six Presidents of the United States have been elected who had Ohio as their home state, Ohios geographic location has proven to be an asset for economic growth and expansion. Because Ohio links the Northeast to the Midwest, much cargo, Ohio has the nations 10th largest highway network, and is within a one-day drive of 50% of North Americas population and 70% of North Americas manufacturing capacity. To the north, Lake Erie gives Ohio 312 miles of coastline, Ohios southern border is defined by the Ohio River, and much of the northern border is defined by Lake Erie. Ohios neighbors are Pennsylvania to the east, Michigan to the northwest, Ontario Canada, to the north, Indiana to the west, Kentucky on the south, Ohio is bounded by the Ohio River, but nearly all of the river itself belongs to Kentucky and West Virginia. Ohio has only that portion of the river between the rivers 1792 low-water mark and the present high-water mark, the border with Michigan has also changed, as a result of the Toledo War, to angle slightly northeast to the north shore of the mouth of the Maumee River. Much of Ohio features glaciated plains, with a flat area in the northwest being known as the Great Black Swamp. Most of Ohio is of low relief, but the unglaciated Allegheny Plateau features rugged hills, in 1965 the United States Congress passed the Appalachian Regional Development Act, at attempt to address the persistent poverty and growing economic despair of the Appalachian Region. This act defines 29 Ohio counties as part of Appalachia, the worst weather disaster in Ohio history occurred along the Great Miami River in 1913. Known as the Great Dayton Flood, the entire Miami River watershed flooded, as a result, the Miami Conservancy District was created as the first major flood plain engineering project in Ohio and the United States. Grand Lake St. Marys in the west central part of the state was constructed as a supply of water for canals in the era of 1820–1850. For many years this body of water, over 20 square miles, was the largest artificial lake in the world and it should be noted that Ohios canal-building projects were not the economic fiasco that similar efforts were in other states. Some cities, such as Dayton, owe their emergence to location on canals. Summers are typically hot and humid throughout the state, while winters generally range from cool to cold, precipitation in Ohio is moderate year-round
4.
Military Aviation Museum
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The Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach, Virginia, is home to one of the worlds largest collections of warbirds in flying condition. Its mission is to preserve, restore and fly historic aircraft and to allow a new generation to experience. In the skies so very far from home, unlike most other collections, which are displayed in a static museum environment, almost all of the historic aircraft at the Museum have been restored to flying condition. In twice-yearly major airshows, as well as special events. The collection also includes a reference library, along with artifacts. The Museum was founded by Gerald Jerry Yagen in 2005, however, the announced sale of the museum and aircraft was premature, it was announced only a week later that the museum wont close soon, some of the facilitys planes. May have to go to keep the operation aloft and we are open for business and business is normal. Several aircraft were indeed sold at that point, but both Mr. Yagens businesses, and the Museum, are now operating normally, since the sales in 2013, additional aircraft have been acquired and are under restoration to fly. The Museum is housed at its own small private grass airfield, the Luftwaffe hangar was built in 1934 at Cottbus Air Base, after the base was closed during the re-unification of Germany, the Museum obtained the hangar in 2004. It was dismantled and shipped to Virginia Beach and construction started in 2010, also underway is a control tower, a re-erection of a genuine ex-8th AAF World War II tower from RAF Goxhill. A two-story brick and concrete structure, built to Air Ministry drawing 518/40 and it is currently being assembled at the Museums airfield where it will be used as an operational tower. In the UK, some towers are now historically protected, when rebuilt. The complex also includes an orange and white checked water tower. At the entrance to museum there is also a dinosaur park. It is free to walk around in, the current batch includes a Morane Saulnier AI, a Nieuport 11, a Nieuport 17, a Nieuport 24, a Sopwith Pup, a Sopwith Camel, a Sopwith 1½ Strutter, and a deHavilland D. H.2. Associated with the Museum is a restoration and maintenance organization, called The Fighter Factory. It was originally located at Norfolk Airport, and later moved to premises at the Suffolk Municipal Airport in Suffolk and it currently operates two facilities, the one in Suffolk, and a new facility at the Museum. The museum also offers guest to have the chance to go up in one of their airplanes, currently you can book an airplane ride in the Waco YMF-5 or the museums Stearman N2S-3
5.
VC-137C SAM 26000
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SAM26000 was the first of two Boeing VC-137C United States Air Force aircraft specifically configured and maintained for use by the President of the United States. It used the callsign Air Force One when the President was on board, a VC-137C with Air Force serial number 62-6000, SAM26000 was a customized Boeing 707. It entered service in 1962 during the administration of John F. Kennedy and was replaced in Presidential service in 1972, the aircraft was finally retired in 1998 and is now on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. The aircraft was built at Boeings Renton plant at a cost of $8 million, Raymond Loewy, working with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, designed the blue and white color scheme featuring the presidential seal that is still used today. The plane served as the means of transportation for three presidents, Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon during his first term, in 1972, during the Nixon administration, the plane was replaced by another 707, SAM27000, although SAM26000 was kept as a back-up plane until 1998. John F. Kennedy was the first president to use SAM26000, Kennedy first flew on the aircraft on November 10,1962, to attend the funeral services of former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in Hyde Park, New York. SAM26000 took Kennedy to Berlin in June 1963, the month before that and it was designer Raymond Loewy who, at the invitation of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, gave SAM26000 the now-familiar Air Force One livery of blue, silver, and white. On November 22,1963, after landing the President and First Lady at Dallas Love Field, later that day, after Kennedys assassination made Vice President Lyndon Johnson the new president, SAM26000 carried the Johnsons, Jacqueline Kennedy, and John Kennedys body back to Washington. To accommodate the four seats were removed from the passenger compartment. As Kennedy was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery,50 fighter jets flew overhead, Johnson was SAM 26000s most frequent flyer, logging some 1,523,000 miles during his five years as president, he once called it my own little plane. Aides and guests sat on couches around the throne, Johnson flew in SAM26000 twice to Vietnam and took tours of Asia in 1968 and 1969. In 1967, Johnson went on a largely unplanned aerial odyssey, making stops in California, Hawaii, Australia, Thailand, South Vietnam, Pakistan, upon the inauguration of Richard Nixon in 1969, SAM26000 underwent repairs and upgrades. Nixon and his staff were offered a key role in the redesigning of the plane, a position they took up, and indeed, the finished plane reflected the new presidents persona. The interior of the plane was stripped from the nose to the tail, all problems were taken care of, upgrades were made on the flight management system. Richard Nixon had the interior of the plane redesigned to suit his fancy, Nixon did away with the open floor plan of the Johnson era and replaced it with a three-room suite for himself and his family, serving as a combination of lounge, office, and bedrooms. Accommodations for guests, aides, security and media personnel were located aft of the three rooms, although SAM27000 took over as the primary presidential aircraft in 1972, Nixons family preferred SAM26000 because its interior configuration allowed greater privacy for the First Family. Nixon also had the name The Spirit of 76 applied to the nose of both VC-137Cs, the Nixons flew on SAM26000 to China in 1972, becoming the first American President and First Lady to visit that nation
6.
Missile
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In modern language, a missile is a self-propelled precision-guided munition system, as opposed to an unguided self-propelled munition, referred to as a rocket. Missiles have four components, targeting and/or missile guidance, flight system, engine. Missiles come in types adapted for different purposes, surface-to-surface and air-to-surface missiles, surface-to-air missiles, air-to-air missiles, all known existing missiles are designed to be propelled during powered flight by chemical reactions inside a rocket engine, jet engine, or other type of engine. Non-self-propelled airborne explosive devices are referred to as shells and usually have a shorter range than missiles. In ordinary British-English usage predating guided weapons, a missile is any thrown object, the word missile comes from the Latin verb mittere, meaning to send. In military usage, munitions projected towards a target are broadly categorised as follows, a powered, unguided munition is known as a rocket. Unpowered munitions not fired from a gun are called bombs whether guided or not, munitions that are fired from a gun are known as projectiles whether guided or not. If explosive, they are more specifically as shells or mortar bombs. Powered munitions that travel through water are called torpedoes, hand grenades are not usually classed as missiles. The first missiles to be used operationally were a series of missiles developed by Nazi Germany in World War II, most famous of these are the V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rocket, both of which used a simple mechanical autopilot to keep the missile flying along a pre-chosen route. Less well known were a series of anti-shipping and anti-aircraft missiles, however, these early systems in World War II were only built in small numbers. Guided missiles have a number of different system components, Targeting and/or missile guidance Flight system Engine Warhead Missiles may be targeted in a number of ways. The most common method is to use some form of radiation, such as infrared, lasers or radio waves and this radiation may emanate from the target, it may be provided by the missile itself, or it may be provided by a friendly third party. The first two are known as fire-and-forget as they need no further support or control from the launch vehicle/platform in order to function. Another method is to use a TV guidance—using either visible light or infrared—in order to see the target, the picture may be used either by a human operator who steers the missile onto its target or by a computer doing much the same job. One of the more bizarre guidance methods instead used a pigeon to steer the missile to its target, many missiles use a combination of two or more of the above methods to improve accuracy and the chances of a successful engagement. Another method is to target the missile by knowing the location of the target and using a system such as INS. This guidance system guides the missile by knowing the current position and the position of the target
7.
Works Progress Administration
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In a much smaller but more famous project, Federal Project Number One, the WPA employed musicians, artists, writers, actors and directors in large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects. Almost every community in the United States had a new park, the WPAs initial appropriation in 1935 was for $4.9 billion. Headed by Harry Hopkins, the WPA provided jobs and income to the unemployed during the Great Depression in the United States. At its peak in 1938, it provided jobs for three million unemployed men and women, as well as youth in a separate division, the National Youth Administration. Between 1935 and 1943, when the agency was disbanded, the WPA employed 8.5 million people, most people who needed a job were eligible for employment in some capacity. Hourly wages were set to the prevailing wages in each area. The stated goal of building programs was to end the depression or, at least, alleviate its worst effects. Millions of people needed subsistence incomes, Work relief was preferred over public assistance because it maintained self-respect, reinforced the work ethic, and kept skills sharp. The WPA was a program that operated its own projects in cooperation with state and local governments. Usually the local sponsor provided land and often trucks and supplies, WPA sometimes took over state and local relief programs that had originated in the Reconstruction Finance Corporation or Federal Emergency Relief Administration programs. It was liquidated on June 30,1943, as a result of low unemployment due to the shortage of World War II. The WPA had provided millions of Americans with jobs for eight years, on May 6,1935, FDR issued Executive Order 7034, establishing the Works Progress Administration. The WPA superseded the work of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, direct relief assistance was permanently replaced by a national work relief program—a major public works program directed by the WPA. The WPA was largely shaped by Harry Hopkins, supervisor of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, both Roosevelt and Hopkins believed that the route to economic recovery and the lessened importance of the dole would be in employment programs such as the WPA. The Division of Professional and Service Projects, which was responsible for projects including education programs, recreation programs. It was later named the Division of Community Service Programs and the Service Division, the Division of Investigation, which succeeded a comparable division at FERA and investigated fraud, misappropriation of funds and disloyalty. The Division of Statistics, also known as the Division of Social Research, the Project Control Division, which processed project applications. Other divisions including the Employment, Management, Safety, Supply, the goal of the WPA was to employ most of the unemployed people on relief until the economy recovered
8.
Convair B-36 Peacemaker
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The Convair B-36 Peacemaker was a strategic bomber built by Convair and operated solely by the United States Air Force from 1949 to 1959. The B-36 is the largest mass-produced piston-engined aircraft ever built and it had the longest wingspan of any combat aircraft ever built, at 230 ft. The B-36 was the first bomber capable of delivering any of the weapons in the U. S. arsenal from inside its four bomb bays without aircraft modifications. With a range of 10,000 mi and a payload of 87,200 lb. Entering service in 1948, the B-36 was the nuclear weapons delivery vehicle of the Strategic Air Command until it was replaced by the jet-powered Boeing B-52 Stratofortress from 1955. All but five examples were scrapped, the B-36 set the standard for range and payload for subsequent U. S. intercontinental bombers. The genesis of the B-36 can be traced to early 1941, as the Pacific war progressed, the air force increasingly needed a bomber capable of reaching Japan from its bases in Hawaii, and the development of the B-36 resumed in earnest. The first delivery was due in August 1945, and the last in October 1946, the aircraft was unveiled on 20 August 1945, and flew for the first time on 8 August 1946. The B-36 was the only American aircraft with the range and payload to carry such bombs from airfields on American soil to targets in the USSR, the modification to allow the use of larger atomic weapons on the B-36 was called the Grand Slam Installation. The B-36 was arguably obsolete from the outset, being piston-powered, coupled with the introduction of first generation jet fighters in potential enemy air forces. The other American piston bombers of the day, the B-29 and B-50, were too limited in range. Intercontinental ballistic missiles did not become sufficiently reliable until the early 1960s, Convair touted the B-36 as the aluminum overcast, a so-called long rifle giving SAC truly global reach. While General Curtis LeMay headed SAC, he turned the B-36 arm, through training and development, into an effective nuclear delivery force. Its maximum payload was more than four times that of the B-29, the B-36 was slow and could not refuel in midair, but could fly missions to targets 3,400 mi away and stay aloft as long as 40 hours. Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation and Boeing Aircraft Company took part in the competition, Consolidated asked for a $15 million contract with $800,000 for research and development, mockup, and tooling. Two experimental bombers were proposed, the first to be delivered in 30 months, throughout its development, the B-36 would encounter delays. When the United States entered World War II, Consolidated was ordered to slow B-36 development, the first mockup was inspected on 20 July 1942, following six months of refinements. A month after the inspection, the project was moved from San Diego, California, to Fort Worth, Texas, Consolidated changed the tail from a twin-tail to a single, thereby saving 3,850 pounds, but this change delayed delivery by 120 days
9.
North American XB-70 Valkyrie
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The North American Aviation XB-70 Valkyrie was the prototype version of the planned B-70 nuclear-armed, deep-penetration strategic bomber for the United States Air Force Strategic Air Command. In the late 1950s, North American Aviation designed the Valkyrie as a large, at these speeds, it was expected that the B-70 would be almost immune to interceptor aircraft, the only effective weapon against bomber aircraft at the time. The bomber would spend only a few minutes over a particular radar station, High speed also made the aircraft difficult to see on the radar displays and its high-altitude flight could not be matched by any contemporary Soviet fighter. The introduction of the first Soviet surface-to-air missiles in the late 1950s put the near-invulnerability of the B-70 in doubt, in response, the United States Air Force began flying its missions at low level, where the missile radars line of sight was limited by local terrain. In this low-level penetration role, the B-70 offered little additional performance over the B-52 it was meant to replace being far more expensive with shorter range, other alternate missions were proposed, but these were of limited scope. With the advent of intercontinental ballistic missiles during the late 1950s, the USAF eventually gave up fighting for its production and the B-70 program was canceled in 1961. Development was then turned over to a program to study the effects of long-duration high-speed flight. As such, two aircraft, designated XB-70A, were built, these aircraft were used for supersonic test-flights during 1964–69. In 1966, one crashed after colliding in mid-air with a smaller jet aircraft. At the time, nuclear weapons weighed several tons, and the need to carry fuel to fly that payload from the continental United States to the Soviet Union demanded large bombers. They also concluded that after release of bombs the aircraft would need supersonic speed to escape the critical blast-radius, the aviation industry had been studying this problem for some time. From the mid-1940s, there was much interest in using nuclear-powered aircraft in the bomber role, in a conventional jet engine, thrust is provided by heating air using jet fuel and accelerating it out a nozzle. In a nuclear engine, heat is supplied by a reactor, most designs also carried a small amount of jet fuel for use during high-power portions of flight—take-off and high-speed dashes. Zip fuels appeared to offer sufficient performance improvement to produce a bomber with supersonic speed. The new bomber was expected to service in 1963. Both nuclear and conventional designs would be considered, the nuclear-powered bomber was organized as Weapon System 125A and pursued simultaneously with the jet-powered version, Weapon System 110A. The requirement also called for a 50,000 pounds payload, the Air Force formed similar requirements for a WS-110L intercontinental reconnaissance system in 1955, but this was later canceled in 1958 due to better options. In July 1955, six contractors were selected to bid on WS-110A studies, Boeing and North American Aviation submitted proposals, and on 8 November 1955 were awarded contracts for Phase 1 development
10.
Bockscar
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It was assigned to the 393d Bombardment Squadron, 509th Composite Group to Wendover Army Air Field, Utah in April. Bockscar was used in 13 training and practice missions from Tinian, about 44% of the city was destroyed,35,000 people were killed and 60,000 injured. After the war, Bockscar returned to the United States in November 1945, in September 1946 it was given to the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. The aircraft was flown to the Museum on 26 September 1961, Bockscar is now on permanent display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio, next to a replica of a Fat Man. Bockscar, B-29-36-MO 44-27297, Victor number 77, was one of 15 Silverplate B-29s used by the 393d Bombardment Squadron of the 509th Composite Group. Bockscar was built at the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Plant at Bellevue, Nebraska, at what is now Offutt Air Force Base and it was one of 10 modified as a Silverplate and re-designated Block 36. Silverplate involved extensive modifications to the B-29 to carry nuclear weapons, the bomb bay doors and the fuselage section between the bomb bays were removed to create a single 33-foot bomb bay. British suspensions and bracing were attached for both types, with the gun-type suspension anchored in the aft bomb bay and the implosion type mounted in the forward bay. Weight reduction was accomplished by removal of gun turrets and armor plating. These B-29s also had an engine, the R-3350-41. The Silverplate aircraft represented a significant increase in performance over the standard variants, delivered to the United States Army Air Forces on 19 March 1945, Bockscar was assigned to Captain Frederick C. Bock and crew C-13, and flown to Wendover Army Air Field, Utah in April. The name chosen for the aircraft, and painted on it after the mission, was a pun on the name of the aircraft commander and it left Wendover on 11 June 1945 for Tinian, where it arrived 16 June. Bockscar was flown on 9 August 1945, by the crew of another B-29, The Great Artiste, the plane was co-piloted by First Lieutenant Charles Donald Albury, the normal aircraft commander of Crew C-15. The Great Artiste was designated as the observation, instrumentation support plane for the second mission, hopkins, Jr. as the photographic aircraft. The mission had as its target the city of Kokura. Its secondary target was Nagasaki, where two large Mitsubishi armament plants were located, the result was that the bomb was carried by Bockscar, but flown by the crew C-15 of The Great Artiste. During pre-flight inspection of Bockscar, the flight engineer notified Sweeney that a fuel transfer pump made it impossible to use 640 US gallons of fuel carried in a reserve tank. This fuel would still have to be carried all the way to Japan and back, replacing the pump would take hours, moving the Fat Man to another aircraft might take just as long and was dangerous as well, as the bomb was live
11.
Boeing B-29 Superfortress
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The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is a four-engine propeller-driven heavy bomber designed by Boeing which was flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. It was one of the largest aircraft operational during World War II and it was the single most expensive weapons project undertaken by the United States in World War II, exceeding the cost of the Manhattan Project by between 1 and 1.7 billion dollars. A manned tail gun installation was semi-remote, the name Superfortress continued the pattern Boeing started with its well-known predecessor, the B-17 Flying Fortress. Designed for the strategic bomber role, the B-29 also excelled in low-altitude nighttime incendiary bombing missions. One of the B-29s final roles during World War II was carrying out the bomb attacks on Hiroshima. The B-29 served in roles throughout the 1950s. The Royal Air Force flew the B-29 as the Washington until phasing out the type in 1954, the Soviet Union produced an unlicensed reverse-engineered copy as the Tupolev Tu-4. The B-29 was the progenitor of a series of Boeing-built bombers, transports, tankers, reconnaissance aircraft, the type was retired in the early 1960s. The B-29 production total was 3,970 aircraft, dozens of B-29s remain as static displays but only two examples, Fifi and Doc, have been restored to flying status, with Doc flying again for the first time from McConnell AFB on July 17,2016. A transport developed from the B-29 was the Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter, first flown in 1944, followed by its commercial airliner variant and this bomber-to-airliner derivation was similar to the B-17/Model 307 evolution. In 1948 Boeing introduced a variant of the B-29 as the KB-29. A heavily modified line of outsized-cargo variants of the Stratocruiser is the Guppy / Mini Guppy / Super Guppy which remain in service today with operators including NASA, Boeing began work on pressurized long-range bombers in 1938, in response to a United States Army Air Corps request. Boeings design study for the Model 334 was a derivative of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress with nosewheel undercarriage. Although the Air Corps did not have money to pursue the design, in April 1939, Charles Lindbergh convinced general Henry H. Arnold to produce a new bomber in large numbers to counter the Nazi production, Boeings previous private venture studies formed the starting point for its response to this specification. Boeing submitted its Model 345 on 11 May 1940, in competition with designs from Consolidated Aircraft, Lockheed, Consolidated continued to work on its Model 33 as it was seen by the Air Corps as a backup in case of problems with Boeings design. Boeing received a production order for 14 service test aircraft and 250 production bombers in May 1941. The B-29 featured a design with circular cross-section for strength
12.
Fat Man
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Fat Man was the codename for the atomic bomb that was detonated over the Japanese city of Nagasaki by the United States on 9 August 1945. It was the second of the two nuclear weapons ever used in warfare, the first being Little Boy, and its detonation marked the third-ever man-made nuclear explosion in history. It was built by scientists and engineers at Los Alamos Laboratory using plutonium from the Hanford Site, for the Fat Man mission, Bockscar was piloted by Major Charles W. Sweeney. The name Fat Man refers generically to the design of the bomb, because it had a wide. It was also known as the Mark III, Fat Man was an implosion-type nuclear weapon with a solid plutonium core. The first of type to be detonated was the Gadget, in the Trinity nuclear test, less than a month earlier on 16 July at the Alamogordo Bombing. Two more Fat Man bombs were detonated during the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll in 1946, some 120 Fat Man units were produced between 1947 and 1949, when it was superseded by the Mark 4 nuclear bomb. The Fat Man was retired in 1950, a gun-type design was chosen, in which two sub-critical masses would be brought together by firing a bullet into a target. Tolman suggested an implosion-type nuclear weapon, but the idea attracted scant consideration, the feasibility of a plutonium bomb was questioned in 1942. Conant consulted Ernest Lawrence and Arthur Compton, who acknowledged that their scientists at Berkeley and Chicago respectively knew about the problem, the committee concluded that any problems could be overcome simply by requiring higher purity. Nonetheless, it was decided that the gun would receive the bulk of the research effort. It was assumed that the uranium gun-type bomb could be adapted from it. The gun-type and implosion-type designs were codenamed Thin Man and Fat Man respectively and these code names were created by Robert Serber, a former student of Oppenheimers who worked on the Manhattan Project. Little Boy would come last, as a variation of Thin Man and he was assisted in this work by Hugh Bradner, Charles Critchfield, and John Streib. L. T. E. Thompson was brought in as a consultant, Thompson was skeptical that an implosion could be made sufficiently symmetric. But Neddermeyers efforts in July and August at imploding tubes to produce cylinders tended to produce objects that resembled rocks, Neddermeyer was the only person who believed that implosion was practical, and only his enthusiasm kept the project alive. Oppenheimer brought John von Neumann to Los Alamos in September 1943 to take a look at implosion. The prospect of more-efficient nuclear weapons impressed Oppenheimer, Teller, and Hans Bethe, kistiakowskys name was immediately suggested, and Kistiakowsky was brought into the project as a consultant in October 1943
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Aerial photo of the museum in its previous location
