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I can understand that a Lancaster shouldn't be used to drop an atomic weapon because its a tail dragger, but then I read that unused Tallboys and Grandslams were taken back to base.
I wasn't advocating landing with a nuke in a Lancaster more advocating dropping the Grandslam anywhere as a better option to landing with it.Although we know what a Tallboy or Grandslam can do if accidentally set off, would you want to apply the same risk mitigation to a nuclear weapon?
Copy - so another reason why we shouldn't consider the Lancaster as a nuke hauler!I wasn't advocating landing with a nuke in a Lancaster more advocating dropping the Grandslam anywhere as a better option to landing with it.
I wasn't. When a bomb load like a Grandslam explodes it turns Merlin engines into pieces of ordenance.Copy - so another reason why we shouldn't consider the Lancaster as a nuke hauler!
I wasn't. When a bomb load like a Grandslam explodes it turns Merlin engines into pieces of ordenance.
I have been to Hiroshima, you don't want that happening by accident. Was there ever a contingency for Enola Gay and Bocks car to return with theirs?Yep! So we agree on what an accidental nuke explosion (even an early one) can do!
I have been to Hiroshima, you don't want that happening by accident. Was there ever a contingency for Enola Gay and Bocks car to return with theirs?
I don't recall about Little Boy but Fat Man was armed when Bockscar took off.
Not sure if the Weaponeer could over-ride it or not.
If not, my guess is that they would have had to drop it at sea before descending.
I'm sure that the load wouldn't be difficult to land with, but I'm wondering what abort sequence the Weaponeer had at his disposal for Fat Man.Fatman weighed under 10,000 pounds. I think a return landing would have been possible.
I agree, if it had been a high enough priority, either the mission, the aircraft, or both could have been modified enough to have a Lancaster drop Little Boy. As you say, the plane could have been lightened. Two-stage Merlins adding enhance altitude capability, and landing at Okinawa or Iwo Jima. Were the airfields long enough to take off from? With JATO/RATO? RATO and atomic bombs, that's a pucker-inducing mix, isn't it? That was one of the US Navy's strategies in 1948 with the P2V Neptune carrying nuclear weapons launched with JATO off of aircraft carriers. (The planes were too big to land on the carrier.)
Fat Man weighed 10,300 lbs and was designed as an implosion bomb. It was considered the safer design. The bomb had three physical circuit pins that could be pulled and replaced with dead circuit pins rendering the device inert. This could be done at any point during flight. During the Nagasaki raid, the arming pins were placed at low altitude as the B-29 didn't have a pressurized bomb bay. Has the raid failed to locate the target the bomb would have been "safed" and returned to Tinian.I'm sure that the load wouldn't be difficult to land with, but I'm wondering what abort sequence the Weaponeer had at his disposal for Fat Man.
I know it had a multiple sequence for detonation that started with the drop: 15 seconds after release saw the circuits partially close, then at 7,000 ASL, the barometric pressure switch engaged the radar circuit which in turn closed the firing circuit at 1,800 ASL.
My concern would be returning to base with an armed A-bomb and then something like a rough landing damages the harness between the bomb and the Weaponeer's control board, would the bomb then "think" it had been released and start it's sequencing?
My concern would be returning to base with an armed A-bomb and then something like a rough landing damages the harness between the bomb and the Weaponeer's control board, would the bomb then "think" it had been released and start it's sequencing?
That would certainly have a high pucker factor...Cross wind landing in a multi engine taildragger...
I don't think that the Lancaster was ever considered to carry Little Boy or Fat Man. Rather it was Thin Man, the first bomb developed, which brought the Lancaster into consideration. Thin Man was very long which meant that it could not fit in a standard B-29 bomb bay.
Cross wind landing in a multi engine taildragger...
My father talked of landing the Lanc in a cross wind...he side slipped it in. These aircraft often took their full load back to base, and sometimes jettisoned some or all of the load depending on available fuel and other factors. He landed with a full load when the Master Bomber called off the raid to Goch, Feb 7, 1945.
Could the Lanc have successfully dropped a nuclear device? I think so. The Mk. VI had engine issues but was extremely fast and could fly at a higher ceiling. The engines in the B-29 were also problematic, remember. The range could have been accomplished with use of a closer base. Ideal? Perhaps not, but in times of war many things were attempted in less than ideal circumstances. The Dams raid comes to mind.
Jim