I actually read a good book about nuclear bombs in the pre-missile era which directly speaks to that concern: http://www.amazon.com/15-Minutes-General-Countdown

I actually read a good book about nuclear bombs in the pre-missile era which directly speaks to that concern: http://www.amazon.com/15-Minutes-General-Countdown-Annihilation/dp/0312611560/ http://www.amazon.com/15-Minutes-General-Countdown-Annihilat... You think carrying bombs on this flight is extraordinary? You don't know the half of it. They were dragging bombs all over the place, all the time, to a ridiculous extent. The practice run could turn into nuclear war while the planes were in the air. And some of the terminology-fiddling is Fun: when they told people things like "the bombs were not armed", they meant that were only a quick switch away from being armed. in related news, the NSA doesn't have "direct access" to Google servers. :P