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So the bomber immediately went into an escape turn after dropping the atomic bomb. The way to put maximum distance between your B-29 bomber and the the bomb's detonation point was to turn around and fly in the opposite direction. In that 45 seconds, the bomb traveled two and a quarter miles in the forward direction – the same direction that the bomber was moving when the bomb was dropped. That means the bomb traveled forward for 45 seconds, at close to 300 miles per hour. The detonation point for the bomb was set at about 1800 feet above ground level to do maximum damage to the city and it took a about 45 seconds for the bomb to fall the 28,200 feet, down to the detonation point. Containing dirt, dust, and debris at extremely elevated temperatures with a potential to actually ignite the airplane, we now also know that those clouds were also highly radioactive.Ī B-29 bomber was traveling at approximately 300 miles per hour when it dropped the atomic bomb.
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It was used to put the maximum distance between the airplane and the detonation of the bomb, whose shock wave was extreme and its mushroom cloud quickly boiled up 30,000 to 50,000 feet into the atmosphere. The 155 degree escape turn maneuver was unique to the B-29s on the atomic bomb missions. Unique escape turn maneuver for B-29 carrying atom bomb So a low altitude bomber would come over and drop its bomb, which would impact on the target and detonate after the bomber was safely out of range. Low altitude bombing involved a danger from the blast, which could destroy the aircraft, but this was handled with a time delay on the bomb's fuse. They just held formation after the bombs were dropped. There wasn't any special escape maneuver used since there was no danger of being caught in the bomb blasts. Once the B-29 bomber dropped the atomic bomb at 30,000 feet, it immediately went into a hard 155 degree turn while simultaneously diving.Īmerican high level bombing missions with conventional weapons were typically at about 24,000 to 25,000 feet, and these bombers (often times a formation of airplanes) continued to fly straight forward or gradually turn to head back to base. That these missions were flown quite differently from any previous high level bomb runs of WW2. In reading about the B-29 bombers involved in the atomic bomb missions of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, The bomb continues traveling forward, detonates at 1,800 feet. Making a 155° escape turn, combined with a power dive, after dropping an atomic bomb.