U.S. bomb outlives its designer

A U.S. civilian engineer who specialized in creating massive, non-nuclear bombs for the Air Force, Albert Weimorts has died in Florida. He was 67.

His son, Todd, said Weimorts died Dec. 21 at a hospital in Fort Walton Beach of brain cancer.

Of the bombs he helped develop, the 5,000-pound GBU-28 "Bunker Buster" was used in Operation Desert Storm in 1991, followed by the even bigger Massive Ordinance Air Blast, nicknamed the "mother of all bombs." It weighs 21,000 pounds and is the largest guided air-delivered weapon in history. It was made for the second war in Iraq war as a weapon to "shock and awe," but never used.

Weimorts retired in 2003, and was awarded the Air Force Award for Meritorious Civilian Service, UPI reports.

V.Y.