British Nuclear Test "Grapple-X Round A"

Two beautiful clips of the British nuclear test "Grapple-X Round A", Britain's first full scale hydrogen bomb.

At 8:45 AM local time, the Grapple X device was dropped off Christmas Island. The release of the bomb activated the telemetry recording instruments on the island which were focused on the intended zero point of the explosion. The Valiant then proceeded in its escape the maneuver as the bomb fell for 53 seconds. The bomb exploded with a force of 1.8 megatons and created a fireball over a mile in diameter.

The bomb missed its intended burst point by 320 yards to the left and 32 yards beyond. The bomb caused some damage to the infrastructure on the island and repairs were needed. Helicopter windows were blown out, aircraft fuel storage tanks were ruptured 26 miles from ground zero, and a large area of land was scorched by the explosion.

The following footage of the Grapple X explosion was filmed from the ground from two different angles. The first sequence is a wide angle view of the explosion filmed from Christmas Island. The brilliant flash of the explosion fills the entire frame, followed by a good view of the rising fireball and formation on several condensation rings. The second sequence was filmed much closer to ground zero and shows the rapidly rising and cooling fireball. Several condensation structures are visible in this sequence, including the formation of an ice cap and a bell forming under the center of the toroidal fireball.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Great
• Britain
• British
• nuclear
• thermonuclear
• atomic
• hydrogen
• bomb
• test

[Zeggawong]

@ekul97 The Brits set of stacks of them. Mostly in South Australia.

[wacoupfs]

My Pops - Wing Commander Peter Finlayson AFC was Wing Commander Flying during Grapple Tests. Still fit & well - aged 90.

[EarlyRave84]

1800 Megatonnes? Lol

II

II

V

[cradelbeen87]

1800 Megatonnes.....Not bad ^^

[Tikayyan]

0:56 watch the big magic mushroom in the sky form!

[ekul97]

Hey mate Is that the only british nuke ino trere was one in 1952 but what is the more powerfull

[XD454009]

kisukomoto!

[kindios]

ke merda