B-36 Peacemaker dropping an Mk-17 Thermonuclear bomb

[technograd]

Bad day for the Happy Tree Friends :)

[Bartz01able]

I think it was the "Ivy Mike" test: Los Alamos tested the Mk 18 Super Oralloy bomb which was no thermonuclear bomb but it was the biggest Fission-bomb (500 kt) ever build.

[schr75]

@Bartz01able The test you mention was the Ivy-King shot. Ivy-Mike was the first full size (10.4MT) thermonuclear detonation in the world. The shot does look like Ivy-Mike though.

[asteroceras]

@Bartz01able A British fission device was the most powerful ever tested: "The Orange Herald Small version was tested once, yielding 720 kT of explosive power on 31 May 1957, during the Grapple 2/Orange Herald tests on Malden Island in the Pacific.[2] Orange Herald remains the largest fission device ever tested."

[johnbarleycornmd]

@asteroceras I think the British used that to "fool" the US to think that they had built a thermonuclear device. Of course, Grapple was a short time away...

[giannivee1]

designed in WWII, I can't wonder how amazingly improved bombing would have been for the USAAF in Europe and the Paciific if they had received the B36 in time. It was an amazing A/C. Extermely capable at speed and at High Altitude and able to fly vast differences eclipsing the Avro Lancater and B24s by several times. It is said with a full load of fuel and economizing they could fly for fifty hours. I don't know for sure, but it is clear they are a whole generation ahead of the B29.

[warmachine1770]

this is why we have accelerated global warming

[Invisiblepanda]

0_o iv seen newer high-def pictures on these from current times :/ i hope they dont plan on using them