Not knowing exactly what they were, they dubbed the cylindrical-shaped one 'Little Boy' and the pumpkin shaped one 'Fat Man.' Otherwise they referred to them as 'the weapon' or 'the gimmick.' The men, however, did not use the term 'bomb' for the weapons.
Every concern revolved around whether two differently shaped bombs could be delivered on target. The men flew as far as the California coast and an airfield in Batista, Cuba, practicing their over-water navigation training.īut the focus of the group's effort lay in performing ballistics testing. At Wendover, Van Kirk and Van Pelt devised navigational problems, worked them out together and practiced until perfect. Radars in 1945 could at best detect most land masses. Most were used to long flights over land, but lacked experience flying over water or at night.
