![]() A number of antennae protruded from the rear of the device, presumably transmitters of onboard telemetry generated during a drop. ![]() The tail fins, it should be noted, are quite similar to the fins on large hydrogen bombs of the time. In the rear of the tail was a large Parachute package. A short cylindrical section followed, with a tapering tail section with three wedge-like tail fins. The use of a Titan II RV, if that is indeed what it is, was likely a matter of convenience and availability… although it could also potentially imply commonality with a Titan-delivered version of the high-yield warhead. At the front was a round-nosed cone that in Configuration and dimension closely – though not precisely – matched those of the Mark 6 re-entry vehicle from the Titan II ICBM. The configuration of the Flashback Test Vehicle was distinct. It was about 96 inches in di diameter and 297 inches long, not counting the protruding parachute pack or antennae. The Flashback device itself was large: large enough that in order to fit into the B-52 bomb bay the bomb bay doors had to be removed, and even then the device protruded from the belly of the aircraft. During the flight tests all high explosive and nuclear components were deleted and a simulator replaced the warhead. Instead, the susceptibility of the Flashback device to electromagnetic emissions from the ARC-58 transmitter in the B-52 carrier aircraft and the device’s own telemetry transmitters was the point of the test. These tests did not involve the dropping of a nuclear bomb which then detonated. January of 1965, the Flashback Test Vehicle was tested at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. The bomb casing and other hardware would be tested and ready to go, with the fission/fusion explosive expected to be plugged in and ready to detonate within 90 days of the Soviet test. ![]() Flashback was a test of such a bomb… but without the actual atomic explosive, testing the associated hardware, ballistics and electronics. It was a way to rapidly build and demonstrate a high yield (50 to 100 megaton) hydrogen bomb in the event the Soviets violated the treaty, as they were likely expected to do. The calculations showed that a nuclear bomb filled with 212 tonnes of deuterium would produce a 5,200-megaton explosion.The Flashback nuclear test vehicle was so large it had to be partly suspended outside of the B-52 bomb bay.įlashback was part of a programme created after the signing of the Limited Test Ban Treaty in 1963. Deuterium fuses with smaller amounts of another hydrogen isotope, tritium, creating massive amounts of energy in the process. Deuterium is an isotope of hydrogen that contains a neutron in addition to one proton in its atomic nucleus, and it is widely used as fusion fuel in thermonuclear weapons. In the 1970s, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory conducted supercomputer calculations which showed that a thermonuclear combustion wave could be initiated inside a large vat of liquid deuterium. ![]() That didn’t stop others from theorizing, however. Thankfully, Teller’s fascinations were notoriously frenetic, and this idea soon fell by the wayside. Or both North and South Korea,” Alex Wellerstein, a historian of science and nuclear weapons and a professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology, wrote. “A 10,000-megaton weapon, by my estimation, would be powerful enough to set all of New England on fire. In 1954, he apparently proposed a 10,000-megaton nuclear weapon to U.S. ![]() This got Edward Teller, the “Father of the Hydrogen Bomb,” excited. American theoretical physicist Ted Taylor, credited with developing the smallest, most powerful, and most efficient fission weapons for the U.S., noted that you could theoretically have “an infinite number” of bombs connected to make one giant bomb. Moreover, they were concerned that the radiation it might produce would blanket the northern section of the Soviet Union.īigger nuclear bombs could be crafted by building them with multiple stages - a conventional bomb sets off a fission bomb that sets off a fusion bomb that sets off a larger fusion bomb and so on. Originally designed to have a 100-megaton yield, its Soviet makers had to downsize it because it would have been too large to fly in any Soviet aircraft. The missile with the greatest explosive yield in the United States’ arsenal is now just 1.2 megatons, paltry by comparison.īut if humans ever lost their way, and again engaged in a “no-win” nuclear race, could we make a much bigger bomb? The answer, unfortunately, is “yes.” But it would be difficult and not at all practical. Thanks to bans on nuclear testing and an enlightened realization that nuclear weapons existentially endanger all life on Earth, it’s unlikely that we will ever see anything like the Tsar Bomba deployed again. ![]()
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