Unknown aircraft bomb, please help ID

[Quest Master]

I am looking for ID on this aircraft bomb. 31" in length. Please let me know country of origin and era.

 

[Quest Master]

The only marking is on the end of the fuze well cap. There is only one fuze, a nose fuze. There are two attachment points on the top and one on the bottom.

 

[Dreamk]

Could you give more details about where you found this bomb?

 

[Quest Master]

I didn't find it, I bought it. It is in the United States, so that is not helpful to the ID.

 

[Quest Master]

This is the only other marking I can find on the bomb. This inspectors stamp is near the fuze well, on the nose of the bomb and it looks like it has been double struck.

 

[Yodamaster]

Seeing your photos, I let myself dive into my doc and my memories did not deceive me. I do not know how to give an exact complete identification, but I know how to give leads for research

First, the type of welded suspension system is very similar to WWII Russian bombs

Second, the empennage attachment system is also similar to a Russian system from the same era (on pic, fixation of an empennage of FAB-50 STsch, 1944)

Third, if your dimension of 31 inches (78,74cm) is indeed the total length, including the empennage, we cannot estimate the weight of the bomb at more than 50 kg.



Yoda

 

[Dreamk]

Yoda, I thought the same, initially, but I checked on the Pyr'ev & Reznichenko which is the most exhaustive and authoritative book on Russian Aviation Bombs from 1912 to 1945 and there is nothing similar to this.
This bomb is puzzling, and the worst is that it looks familiar - I have the feeling that I have already seen something like this.

 

[Dreamk]

Found it!

Federal Laboratories Bomb from the 1930s, probably one of their chemical warfare developments - the cases of such bombs were often re-sold by the American Armament Corporation to various South American Nations to be locally filled with explosive.

 

[Quest Master]

Woah! That is the exact bomb! Thank you!

 

[Quest Master]

Since the bomb is now ID'd as U.S., do you think it is painted yellow for the pre-WWII standard color for High Explosive?

 

[Dreamk]

The yellow paint of the bomb is indeed the pre-1942 color for US HE bombs . However the gray-green paint of the bomb you bought is consistent with a chemical warfare bomb. So this strengthens the hypothesis that the yellow painted bomb was a bomb-case delivered to be filled with HE by the clients.

 

[Dreamk]

I found a digital copy of the 1933 catalog of Federal laboratories. It includes interesting drawings/ photogarphs of bombs and aircraft smoke sprayers"
The bomb in this thread is indeed a Gederal Laboratories "chemical" bomb - content could be tear or warfare gases (or incendiary) in accordance to the wishes of the buyer.