Mk- 17 Hydrogen bomb 1954- 1957

ooooooo very big bomb! First "practical" weaponized hydrogen device in US stockpile. About 305 built. First deployed under "emergency" status ; no parachute to retard the fall and allow the delivery aircraft to escape the blast zone. WHAT! SAC soon fixed the problem of vaporizing it's bomber crews by attaching a 64 ft. parachute to the MK-17. The B-36 was the only aircraft big enough to carry this 21 ton 28 foot long monster. One was accidentally dropped right thru the bomb bay doors. Ooops! Wasn't armed so it didn't go off. Albuquerque lived on. Very big bomb- 15 megatons. That is roughly one thousand times the size of the weapon dropped on Hiroshima. Fallout would kill every unsheltered creature in 5,000 square miles. The test of a version of this device caused a lot of big thinkers on both sides to start thinking of nuclear war as "unwinnable" ----------------------------- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_17_nuclear_bomb
I think Silhouette Man looks a little nervous.