5 Most Powerful Weapons In The World

3. LITTLE BOY AND FAT MAN

Little Boy was the code name for an atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 from an Enola Gay plane (B-29 Super Fortress). The plane was flown by Colonel Paul Tibets of the 393rd Bomber Squadron of the United States Air Force. It was the first atomic bomb used as a weapon. It was dropped three days before the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. This bomb was developed as part of the Manhattan Project during World War II. Its explosive power comes from the nuclear fission of uranium 235. The bombing of Hiroshima was the second artificially induced nuclear explosion in history (the first was the Trinity test), as well as the first uranium-based detonation. Approximately 600 milligrams of mass is converted into energy. The bomb exploded at an altitude of about 600 meters and developed a destructive force equivalent to between 13 and 18 kilotons of TNT (estimates vary) and killed approximately 220,000 people. Its design has not been previously tested due to the fact that enriched uranium was very rare at that time, so the United States saved it.

Fat Man is the code name for an atomic bomb that detonated over Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945. The bomb was dropped by the United States. It was an implosion-type bomb, with a plutonium center. The fat man may have been named after Winston Churchill, although Robert Serber stated in his memoirs that as the bomb was round and thick, he named it after Casper Gutman from Sidney Green Street’s Maltese Falcon. Fat man’s design was similar to the design of the first atomic bomb device detonated during the Trinity atomic test. in July 1945. it was detonated at an altitude of approximately 550 m above the city, and was ejected from a B-29 bomber by a super fort. It was piloted by Major Charles Sweeney of the 393rd Bomber Squadron. The bomb had a power of approximately 21 kilotons of TNT, or 8.78 × 1013 joules = 88 TJ (terajoules). Since Nagasaki is on a hilly terrain, the damage from the explosion was somewhat less than in relatively flat Hiroshima. It is estimated that 39,000 people were killed and 25,000 injured in the bombing of Nagasaki.  Thousands more later died from injuries caused by the explosion and burns, and hundreds more from radiation poisoning from exposure to the bomb’s initial radiation.

They were both designed by The Los Alamos Laboratory, also known as Project Y, a secret laboratory established by the Manhattan Project and operated by the University of California.