Pumpkin bomb

Pumpkin bomb
A pumpkin bomb
Type	Conventional high-explosive bomb Ballistic simulator
Place of origin	United States
Service history
In service	1945
Used by	United States Army Air Forces
Wars	World War II
Production history
No. built	486
Specifications
Mass	5.26 long tons (5.34 t)
Length	10 feet 8 inches (3.25 m)
Diameter	60 inches (152 cm)
Filling	Composition B
Filling weight	6,300 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).