Manhattan Project: Bomb Design (1943)
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The Manhattan Project pursued two bomb designs simultaneously. The gun-type design was simpler but only worked with uranium-235. The implosion design was complex but worked with plutonium, which was easier to produce.
Gun-Type (Little Boy)
Shoot uranium slug into uranium target
design
Uranium-235 (hard to enrich)
fuel
Simple — so confident they skipped testing
complexity
Dropped on Hiroshima, August 6, 1945
outcome
Implosion (Fat Man)
Compress plutonium sphere with shaped charges
design
Plutonium-239 (reactor-produced)
fuel
Extremely complex — required Trinity test
complexity
Dropped on Nagasaki, August 9, 1945
outcome
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