Gun-triggered Fission Bomb The simplest way to bring the subcritical masses together is to make a gun that fires one mass into the other. A sphere of U-235 is made around the neutron generator and a small bullet of U-235 is removed. The bullet is placed at the one end of a long tube with explosives behind it, while the sphere is placed at the other end. A barometric-pressure sensor determines the appropriate altitude for detonation and triggers the following sequence of events: 1. The explosives fire and propel the bullet down the barrel. 2. The bullet strikes the sphere and generator, initiating the fission reaction. 3. The fission reaction begins. 4. The bomb explodes. Little Boy was this type of bomb and had a 14.5-kiloton yield (equal to 14,500 tons of TNT) with an efficiency of about 1.5 percent. That is, 1.5 percent of the material was fissioned before the explosion carried the material away. Implosion-Triggered Fission Bomb Early in the Manhattan Project, the secret