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Picture of one of the bombs taken with a GameBoy camera. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Goldsboro_nuclear_bomb.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Goldsbo

by dm2 13y ago

Picture of one of the bombs taken with a GameBoy camera. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Goldsboro_nuclear_bomb.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Goldsboro_nuclear_bomb.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash > "large enough to have a 100% kill zone of seventeen miles" Wow, this quote makes you realize the scale. Nuclear bombs are discussed so frequently that it's easy to forget their potential. > "Five of the six arming mechanisms on one of the bombs activated, causing it to execute many of the steps needed to arm itself, such as charging the firing capacitors and, critically, deployment of a 100-foot-diameter (30 m) retard parachute. The parachute allowed that bomb to hit the ground with little damage." What would cause any of the "arming mechanisms" to activate? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permissive_Action_Link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permissive_Action_Link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuze#Fuze_safety.2Farming_mechanisms http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuze#Fuze_safety.2Farming_mecha... http://cryptome.org/nuke-fuze.htm http://cryptome.org/nuke-fuze.htm

InclinedPlane 13y ago
This is sort of a side note, but that 17 mile kill zone for a 3.8 megaton bomb would depend on it exploding in the air, which would allow more of the energy of the bomb to hit the ground rather than be forced out along the ground or be directed into excavating a useless crater or up in to the air. A ground-level blast would have a much shorter radius of lethality but it would also create vastly more radioactive fallout.
- dm2 13y ago
  If the final safeguard wasn't in place, rather than just "5 of the 6", then wouldn't the bomb detonate at the proper altitude automatically? One of the two floated down with a parachute like it was suppose to. Would there be any evidence of what even happened if the nuclear bomb had exploded? The plane and bomb would be completely vaporized. It would be nothing but conspiracy and rumors as to why a nuclear bomb went off that day in Goldsboro.
  - InclinedPlane 13y ago
    It's hard to say without knowing all of the details, which won't happen for a while due to the extreme secrecy surrounding the technical details of the bomb design among other things. However, the implication of the reports about the accident are that the collision with the ground was what caused most of the other safeguards to have failed, even though one of the safeguards appears to have failed during the breakup of the aircraft.

by dm2 13y ago

InclinedPlane 13y ago

This is sort of a side note, but that 17 mile kill zone for a 3.8 megaton bomb would depend on it exploding in the air, which would allow more of the energy of the bomb to hit the ground rather than be forced out along the ground or be directed into excavating a useless crater or up in to the air. A ground-level blast would have a much shorter radius of lethality but it would also create vastly more radioactive fallout.

dm2 13y ago
If the final safeguard wasn't in place, rather than just "5 of the 6", then wouldn't the bomb detonate at the proper altitude automatically? One of the two floated down with a parachute like it was suppose to. Would there be any evidence of what even happened if the nuclear bomb had exploded? The plane and bomb would be completely vaporized. It would be nothing but conspiracy and rumors as to why a nuclear bomb went off that day in Goldsboro.
- InclinedPlane 13y ago
  It's hard to say without knowing all of the details, which won't happen for a while due to the extreme secrecy surrounding the technical details of the bomb design among other things. However, the implication of the reports about the accident are that the collision with the ground was what caused most of the other safeguards to have failed, even though one of the safeguards appears to have failed during the breakup of the aircraft.