It should also be noted that the early thermonuclear devices were rigged for a parachute drop to give the B-36 crew enough time to escape to a safe distance before detonation.
Yes. The Soviets used a system that was "suspiciously familiar" when they dropped the 50 megaton Tsar Bomba:
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
Da, tovarischi, that's exactly how the Russians dropped the "Tsar Bomba!"
I even found a film on the same, takes a few seconds to load up and go, so be patient.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9AMtUeyDP0
A fifty-megatonner! Must have scared the hell out of the Russkies, they never did another one. It'd scare the hell out of me too, and make me stick with cherry bombs and M-80's!
Hey, we were all kids once, anyone remember the kids answers to the following questions?
"How many cherry bombs equal an M-80?"
"How many M-80's equal a stick of dynamite?"
I hope somebody out there remembers, 'cause I've forgotten!
Penny Trains Firelock76 I remember watching a TV documentary about Darryl Greenamyer's failed attempt at recovering "Kee Bird." "B-29: Frozen In Time". It was an episode of Nova, which I taped and watch once in a while.
Firelock76 I remember watching a TV documentary about Darryl Greenamyer's failed attempt at recovering "Kee Bird."
"B-29: Frozen In Time". It was an episode of Nova, which I taped and watch once in a while.
That's the one! Saw it years ago and never fogot it.
Firelock76 A fifty-megatonner! Must have scared the hell out of the Russkies, they never did another one.
A fifty-megatonner! Must have scared the hell out of the Russkies, they never did another one.
Even with the parachute and the plane coated in a special reflective paint, the Soviet scientists thought the bomber crew only had 50% odds of survival.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
There are several articles on various websites regarding the "Tsar Bomba". Even at half its potential bang (it was designed for a potential 100 MT), it was too big (and too heavy) to be a useful weapon.
Speaking of stuff that blows up with unforseen consequences, anyone remember this great British sci-fi film from 1961?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUFtgep9sj4
Well-done and intelligent, it's one of the best sci-fi films ever!
CSSHEGEWISCH There are several articles on various websites regarding the "Tsar Bomba". Even at half its potential bang (it was designed for a potential 100 MT), it was too big (and too heavy) to be a useful weapon.
Oh, I don't know. I think the guys at Sandia were fairly shaken at the idea of the Soviets having a "deliverable" 50Mt weapon. Especially since many of their earliest fusion designs needed to be "delivered by ox cart" as Opie might say. It was Andrei Sakharov who decided to trash the 100Mt design that Kruschchev wanted and go with the 50Mt version. His reasoning, as I heard it, was that at 100Mt the fireball would be the width of the Earth's atmosphere and half the blast would go off into space, so why waste the Uranium? After the 50Mt blast, by the way, Sakharov became decidedly anti-nuke.
See what I mean? If it scared the hell out of the guy that designed the thing, well, what can we say?
I wonder how many shots of Stoli it took to calm everyone down after that test shot?
Kind of makes you wonder, governments being what they are, that there are not a couple of these stashed away somewhere in Siberia.
Miningman Kind of makes you wonder, governments being what they are, that there are not a couple of these stashed away somewhere in Siberia.
Uh huh. The government of South Africa said a few years back (Mandela administration) they'd gotten rid of their nukes, but I wouldn't be so sure. No-one throws out a perfectly good nuke, considering the cost to develop the things.
Probably stuck in a nice safe basement somewhere, "just in case."
Firelock76 Miningman Kind of makes you wonder, governments being what they are, that there are not a couple of these stashed away somewhere in Siberia. Uh huh. The government of South Africa said a few years back (Mandela administration) they'd gotten rid of their nukes, but I wouldn't be so sure. No-one throws out a perfectly good nuke, considering the cost to develop the things. Probably stuck in a nice safe basement somewhere, "just in case."
Israel has never admitted to possessing the bomb, but numerous intelligence analysts believe they have nukes.
They used to be pretty buddy-buddy with South Africa too...
The Vela Incident is believed to have been a nuclear test, but no one has ever claimed it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vela_Incident
"Neither confirm, nor deny..." is the Israeli policy, and a wise one too. "Keep the bad guys guessing" is a sound strategy, especially for the Israeli's.
When they say "Never again!" they're not kidding. I don't blame them either.
Penny Trains It was Andrei Sakharov who decided to trash the 100Mt design that Kruschchev wanted and go with the 50Mt version. His reasoning, as I heard it, was that at 100Mt the fireball would be the width of the Earth's atmosphere and half the blast would go off into space, so why waste the Uranium?
It was Andrei Sakharov who decided to trash the 100Mt design that Kruschchev wanted and go with the 50Mt version. His reasoning, as I heard it, was that at 100Mt the fireball would be the width of the Earth's atmosphere and half the blast would go off into space, so why waste the Uranium?
IIRC, 50MT is about where the blast does more to punch a hole in the stratosphere than increasing blast radius. The weight of the atmosphere for above a given area at sea level is equivalent to weight of a five mile long horizontal column of air at sea level with the same cross-sectional area.
IIRC, the main reason that Sakharov went with the 50MT design was concern about world wide fallout, which would have been getting close to the total of all of the previous testing. The change from the 50MT design to the 100MT design was replacing the lead casing with depleted uranium casing, with the extra yield coming from the depleted urnanium being fissioned by the neutrons generated by the fusion reactions.
Erikem, sorry but I have to ask.
What does IIRC mean? I know LOL, IMHO, FWIW, and OMG, to say nothing of "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot," but IIRC has me scratching my head.
If I recall correctly .... I know you didn't ask me but thought I would answer
Ah, thank you so much sir! Now I can sleep tonight...
Firelock76 Here's a good B-36 "might have been." I remember back in the early 70's there was a B-36 on display at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. A local group got the idea "Hey! Let's restore it to flying status!" The D-FW airport folks were all for it, and the group was well on their way, even to the point the got those big recip engines started, and then one day the Air Force showed up. "Nothing doing!" they said. "That's still OUR airplane! The airport's got it just as a loaner, so don't even think about making it fly again!" That was the end of that. Now in 2018, I believe the B-36 at the Pima Air And Space Museum in Tuscon AZ is the same airplane, but I'm not sure on that. I've been through D-FW several times, and didn't see any B-36 on display anywhere. That's something that would be hard to miss. www.pimaair.org/
Here's a good B-36 "might have been."
I remember back in the early 70's there was a B-36 on display at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. A local group got the idea "Hey! Let's restore it to flying status!"
The D-FW airport folks were all for it, and the group was well on their way, even to the point the got those big recip engines started, and then one day the Air Force showed up.
"Nothing doing!" they said. "That's still OUR airplane! The airport's got it just as a loaner, so don't even think about making it fly again!"
That was the end of that. Now in 2018, I believe the B-36 at the Pima Air And Space Museum in Tuscon AZ is the same airplane, but I'm not sure on that. I've been through D-FW several times, and didn't see any B-36 on display anywhere. That's something that would be hard to miss.
www.pimaair.org/
Firelock 76, Permit me to tie up what seems to be a loose end, and bring the story of the Pima Air B-36 to a 'Paul Harvey moment'.
Linked here is a Video of the attempt to bring that B36 in flyable condition.
@https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VykzdDTOHmU
Saw a presentation of the history of the Ft. Worth B-36, Can't remember the channel. It was started in the early 1990's, by a group of empoyees that had built it. " The Last B-36 built at the plant (Convair(?) in Ft.Worth"
They worked on it for a number of years in a hangar there at Carter Field, and were close to reassembly, when the folks at "Lockheed' pulled the plug, and put them out of the hangar, which was needed to build the F-35. So 'the group of re-constructors' had their plane covered abd put out in an adjacent field. Their efforts to find financing in that area to re-assemble the plane failed to gain enough dupport. SO, The Air Force, reclaimed the title to it. { The Air Force owns all those historic planes and only 'loans' them out for exhibition. The B-17 'Memphis Belle' was another that they had reclaimed back from the group in Memphis that had not maintained their exhibitionstandard.
Currently, here in Wichita, the B-29 'Doc' (airworthy( flies out of McConnell AFB) and is temporarily housed in a Hangar at Spirit Aviation...The City of Wichita is in the process of building an exhibition hanger at Deight D Eisenhower Airport (nee: Mid Continent A/P).
The navy still owns all their aircraft as well, including the Curtiss Sparrowhawks that are at the bottom of the ocean in the wreckage of the Akron and Macon. They won't allow what is left to be salvaged and possibly restored. The fact that no others exist isn't changing their minds.
MiningmanKind of makes you wonder, governments being what they are, that there are not a couple of these stashed away somewhere in Siberia.
Won't do them any good; the tritium will long since have decayed. Nothing of meaningful yield does not have at least one fusion stage.
My recollection of the 'Tsar Bomba' device was that it was symmetrical, and one side was simply loaded and reflectored with dummy material to produce the lower yield. It is not that difficult to reach high nominal megaton yields with a multistage device if size and weight -- and dirtiness -- are not design criteria. As Teller noted, ten times the yield beyond a fairly modest point just lifts the same amount of atmosphere, but with higher velocity. Little point in making the rubble bounce faster...
54light15 The navy still owns all their aircraft as well, including the Curtiss Sparrowhawks that are at the bottom of the ocean in the wreckage of the Akron and Macon. They won't allow what is left to be salvaged and possibly restored. The fact that no others exist isn't changing their minds.
Unless the owner's wrapped it into a ball, or it's found a home in a museum somewhere, I know that at least one Sparrowhawk surivived. I saw it at an airshow in Lakehurst NJ back in 1971. I'm going to have to check that.
It's at the Smithsonian, according to wiki.
Backshop It's at the Smithsonian, according to wiki.
Right you are Backshop, it's on display at the Udvar-Hazy facility of the National Air And Space Museum near Dulles Airport. You beat me to it! Well done!
Here's a gadget:
Penny Trains Here's a gadget:
Oh my. I've never seen a golfball look so, so, ominous...
Shall we call it "Tsar Titleist?"
Firelock76 Penny Trains Here's a gadget: Oh my. I've never seen a golfball look so, so, ominous... Shall we call it "Tsar Titleist?"
Looks like the original Fat Man for the Trinity test, which was often referred to as "the gadget" by LASL personnel.
SD70DudeIsrael has never admitted to possessing the bomb, but numerous intelligence analysts believe they have nukes.
In the recent bio of James Jesus Angleton (head of counter-intelligence CIA 1954-1975) by jefferson Morley, it seems quite clear that Israel has long had the bomb. Angleton aided the Mosad bylooking the other way while a Jewish-American, who owned a processing plant in upstate NY, "lost" a great deal of fissionable material.
erikemLooks like the original Fat Man for the Trinity test, which was often referred to as "the gadget" by LASL personnel.
I thought I should throw a train or two back in the mix...even if they are radioactive...
Great! I just love the gallows humor in those old Lionel atomic cars!
Firelock, I didn't know that there was a surviving Sparrowhawk. And I sure didn't know that the Fat Man bomb was a modeled after a golf ball. Maybe Ben Hogan or some other old-time golfer played a few holes with the scientists?
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