Pumpkin bomb

Pumpkin bomb
A pumpkin bomb
TypeConventional high-explosive bomb
Ballistic simulator
Place of originUnited States
Service history
In service1945
Used byUnited States Army Air Forces
WarsWorld War II
Production history
No. built486
Specifications
Mass5.26 long tons (5.34 t)
Length10 feet 8 inches (3.25 m)
Diameter60 inches (152 cm)

FillingComposition B
Filling weight6,300 pounds (2,900 kg)

Pumpkin bombs were conventional aerial bombs developed by the Manhattan Project and used by the United States Army Air Forces against Japan during World War II. It was a close replication of the Fat Man plutonium bomb with the same ballistic and handling characteristics, but it used non-nuclear conventional high explosives. It was mainly used for testing and training purposes, which included combat missions flown with pumpkin bombs by the 509th Composite Group. The name "pumpkin bomb" was the term used in official documents from the large, fat ellipsoidal shape of the munition casing instead of the more usual cylindrical shape of other bombs, intended to enclose the Fat Man's spherical "physics package" (the plutonium implosion nuclear weapon core).