Turned Out Nice Again Posted September 21, 2013 Share Posted September 21, 2013 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24183541 this happened a few days after JFK's inauguration. After a B52 broke-up in mid-air over N. Carolina, a 4MT H-bomb deployed fully armed and only one of the six arming devices on the device prevented detonation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash i wonder how would the world be now if it had gone off? how would it have been spun? what would JFK's response have been? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Masked Tulip Posted September 21, 2013 Share Posted September 21, 2013 Fascinating story - lots about it on-line. If it had gone off it would have killed million instantly and countless tens of millions more would have died of radiation or have suffered from it for decades afterwards. The ensuing radioactive cloud, after taking out several major US cities, would have travelled over to good old Blightly most likely. Some of us most likey would never have been born - or survived. Interesting stories about how the bombs were released. Offically the B-52 broke up but eye witnesses say that they saw it crashing intact. We are told that something happened to release the bombs but what something - electrical or g-force - is a tad vague. Did the crew of a crashing B-52 decide it was the safer option to drop the nukes rather than to crash the nukes? If so, what a decision to have to make in a matter of moments. Not all the crew survived. Two died inside the aircraft - presumably they could not eject or the ejection failed. Another crew member died after ejected. This crash resulted in the only time a pilot has escaped out of the top hatch of a B-52 maually. The chaps brought in to recover and make safe the nukes must have had an interest time when they realised that just one fail-safe was standing between them and the nuke exploding. Technically, in theory, anything could have triggered that last fail-safe - something metallic such as a wrist-watch or a metal tool, something electrical or just one more thud. I suspect that they had a few beers after making that nuke safe. I think they found the plutonium but that the uranium went down so far into the ground that they never recovered it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corevalue Posted September 21, 2013 Share Posted September 21, 2013 It's a whole lot more scary than that. Just eyeball this list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_nuclear_accidents Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Masked Tulip Posted September 21, 2013 Share Posted September 21, 2013 i wonder how would the world be now if it had gone off? how would it have been spun? what would JFK's response have been? Millions would have died instantly and millions more dead within weeks. Survivors would have had elevated rates of cancers and other illnesses. In a country as vast as the US would there have been collapse. The industrial and economic areas of the US would have been hugely affected. There was no Silicon Valley back then and, over on the West Coast, the only real industry was Boeing up in Washington State and oil in Texas. All the major financial and industrial economic drivers of the US were mainly in the East back then. Would people have tried to move West? Would there be attempts to stop them? Would there be enough people to stop them bearing in mind the vast size of the US. Simply, would law and order have broken down? What was it - around 250 times the blast of the Japan WW2 bombs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happy_renting Posted September 21, 2013 Share Posted September 21, 2013 Odd timing for this news, for me, anyway, as only a few days ago distraction-upon-distraction-hopping pages in Wiki, I was reading all about B52 accidents. Amazing to think that the B-52, the last of which was built in the early 1960's, will still be in service in the 2040's. There was another important B-52 accident - involving three atromic bombs of a different type in Spain in 1966.. On two of the bombs, the conventional explosives actually detonated. Reading about the Carolina accident, I wonder just how close the Spanish bombs were to detonating a nuclear explosion, too. Perhaps more will be revealed when and if papers relating to the Spanish incident are declassified. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happy_renting Posted September 21, 2013 Share Posted September 21, 2013 the only real industry was Boeing up in Washington State and oil in Texas. You forget, back then, they still made cars in Dallas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Masked Tulip Posted September 21, 2013 Share Posted September 21, 2013 You forget, back then, they still made cars in Dallas. Did they? What make? Just curious. Thinking about it the Mississipi probably would have become a dividing line between East and West. I suppose people would have had to try and get on with this lives and hope not to be taken ill or die. Doesn't bear thinking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloo Loo Posted September 21, 2013 Share Posted September 21, 2013 Fascinating story - lots about it on-line. If it had gone off it would have killed million instantly and countless tens of millions more would have died of radiation or have suffered from it for decades afterwards. The ensuing radioactive cloud, after taking out several major US cities, would have travelled over to good old Blightly most likely. Some of us most likey would never have been born - or survived. Interesting stories about how the bombs were released. Offically the B-52 broke up but eye witnesses say that they saw it crashing intact. We are told that something happened to release the bombs but what something - electrical or g-force - is a tad vague. Did the crew of a crashing B-52 decide it was the safer option to drop the nukes rather than to crash the nukes? If so, what a decision to have to make in a matter of moments. Not all the crew survived. Two died inside the aircraft - presumably they could not eject or the ejection failed. Another crew member died after ejected. This crash resulted in the only time a pilot has escaped out of the top hatch of a B-52 maually. The chaps brought in to recover and make safe the nukes must have had an interest time when they realised that just one fail-safe was standing between them and the nuke exploding. Technically, in theory, anything could have triggered that last fail-safe - something metallic such as a wrist-watch or a metal tool, something electrical or just one more thud. I suspect that they had a few beers after making that nuke safe. I think they found the plutonium but that the uranium went down so far into the ground that they never recovered it. so, 1 bomb is proposed to have taken out the entire economy...BS methinks when they have 10,000 to deter the Ruskiis. and 250 times the power doesnt mean 250 times the killing area....I think 10KM radius for the initial kill circle for people exposed and blasted shortly after...15km for serious stuctural damage. pretty nasty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Masked Tulip Posted September 21, 2013 Share Posted September 21, 2013 so, 1 bomb is proposed to have taken out the entire economy...BS methinks when they have 10,000 to deter the Ruskiis. and 205 the power doesnt mean 250 times the killing area....I think 10KM radius for the initial kill circle for people exposed and blasted shortly after...15km for serious stuctural damage. pretty nasty. The radition from that type of bomb was the problem... after it had killed a few million people first of course... as the cloud would have been massive and the location of the explosion would have taken the cloub up and along the East side of the US. Major population and industrial areas. The blast radius would have been about 17 to 20 miles. So that is, what, exploding in Swindon and taking out Bristol, Reading, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goat Posted September 21, 2013 Share Posted September 21, 2013 Millions would have died instantly and millions more dead within weeks. Survivors would have had elevated rates of cancers and other illnesses. Nukemap Nukemap suggests roughly 50,000 killed and 250,000 injured. The area is relatively sparsely populated so there just aren't that many people to kill. The same device dropped on london would kill 2,500,000+. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happy_renting Posted September 21, 2013 Share Posted September 21, 2013 Did they? What make? Just curious. Thinking about it the Mississipi probably would have become a dividing line between East and West. I suppose people would have had to try and get on with this lives and hope not to be taken ill or die. Doesn't bear thinking about. **facepalm** I meant Detroit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Masked Tulip Posted September 21, 2013 Share Posted September 21, 2013 **facepalm** I meant Detroit. Perhaps they make the B-52s in Dallas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloo Loo Posted September 21, 2013 Share Posted September 21, 2013 I think they did drop some on Detroit. I think that was the debt bomb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Ayatollah Buggeri Posted September 21, 2013 Share Posted September 21, 2013 "Would it have been better if they had?" William Sherman probably would have done if he'd had the means at his disposal... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Masked Tulip Posted September 21, 2013 Share Posted September 21, 2013 Do you think Mythbusters should recreate it to see what would have happened if it had gone bang? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fluffy666 Posted September 21, 2013 Share Posted September 21, 2013 Fascinating story - lots about it on-line. If it had gone off it would have killed million instantly and countless tens of millions more would have died of radiation or have suffered from it for decades afterwards. The ensuing radioactive cloud, after taking out several major US cities, would have travelled over to good old Blightly most likely. Some of us most likey would never have been born - or survived. Nukes are not *quite* that bad.. or the airborne tests of the 1950s would have wiped out half the planet.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Masked Tulip Posted September 21, 2013 Share Posted September 21, 2013 Nukes are not *quite* that bad.. or the airborne tests of the 1950s would have wiped out half the planet.. From Nukemap - the handy guide to a nuclear holocaust Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest eight Posted September 21, 2013 Share Posted September 21, 2013 Perhaps they make the B-52s in Dallas The B52's are from from Athens GA. The Polyphonic Spree are from Dallas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happy_renting Posted September 22, 2013 Share Posted September 22, 2013 Makes me wonder how close things got for the UK in this incident.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPin Posted September 22, 2013 Share Posted September 22, 2013 Makes me wonder how close things got for the UK in this incident.... Crikey! That could have destroyed Slough! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHERWICK Posted September 22, 2013 Share Posted September 22, 2013 Crikey! That could have destroyed Slough! So it worked then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lewis Gordon Pugh Posted September 22, 2013 Share Posted September 22, 2013 Yet funny how the bombs didnt go off, despite going through the arming process. Do nukes really exist? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happy_renting Posted September 22, 2013 Share Posted September 22, 2013 Crikey! That could have destroyed Slough! Betjeman would have been chuffed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fluffy666 Posted September 22, 2013 Share Posted September 22, 2013 Yet funny how the bombs didnt go off, despite going through the arming process. Do nukes really exist? Yes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Masked Tulip Posted September 22, 2013 Share Posted September 22, 2013 Yet funny how the bombs didnt go off, despite going through the arming process. Do nukes really exist? No. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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