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"Little Boy" Atomic Bomb Training Model (509th Composite Group), 1945....
Description
"Little Boy" Atomic Bomb Training Model (509th Composite Group), 1945. An extraordinarily rare and historically important aeronautical training device representing the "Little Boy" atomic bomb, the first nuclear weapon used in warfare, dropped by the Enola Gay of the 509th Composite Group over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The striking example is a ground training model, produced for the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1945 to train flight and ordnance crews in handling, release, and loading procedures for the Little Boy unit and related delivery systems. These devices were used by the 509th Composite Group for mechanical and procedural instruction in preparation for atomic deployment, providing a non-functional but dimensionally accurate mock-up for use with aircraft such as the B-29 Superfortress. Accompanied by a five-page Expert Opinion prepared by Associate Professor of Engineering Alois Skoupý, C.Sc., of the Czech Expert Institute (Brno), dated June 30, 2024, confirming its authenticity as "an American aeronautical training device from the year 1945," produced for the 509th Group of the U.S. Air Force. The report further concludes that the front section is original to 1945 manufacture, while the rear section was reconstructed in 2014 using original U.S. Army Air Forces engineering drawings. Restoration was performed under museum-grade standards and approved by the Military History Institute in Prague, signed by Brigadier General AleŠ Knizek on June 26, 2020. The model is finished in its historically correct black-and-white color scheme, with the release identifier "No. 7" corresponding to a verified training serial. Documentation photos included in the expert report illustrate the model both before and after restoration. The work was executed after the artifact's import from England to the Czech Republic in 2014, following recovery of incomplete remains of an original 509th training device.The Little Boy bomb represented the culmination of the Manhattan Project's immense scientific and industrial effort, involving tens of thousands of personnel and unprecedented coordination between military, academic, and industrial sectors. The 509th Composite Group, activated in December 1944 under the command of Col. Tibbets, was created specifically to deliver these new weapons. Training models such as the present example played a critical role in preparing flight and ordnance crews for that mission, allowing the team to practice loading, securing, and releasing a weapon of entirely new size and configuration safely, long before a live unit was ever mounted aboard an aircraft. Measuring approximately ten feet long and forty-two inches tall when seated on a heavyweight metal base with casters. Some age and handling related wear including some paint loss. A rare and almost certainly unique opportunity to obtain such an historic relic.
Auction Info
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Signature® Floor Session (Live Floor, Live Phone, Mail, Fax, Internet, and Heritage Live):
(Lots 50001-50227) - 10:00 AM Central Time, Thursday, December 11, 2025.
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