Crazy Story from great uncle who was in the Military in the SOviet Union.

I wish i wrote all his stories down years ago. Gotta talk about it as much as i can, time seems right.

He is about to give up the ghost.

He was born inside the Soviet Union. I've heard parts of the story several times before. Since he about to die, all of us are talking about his stories when in was in the military in the CCCP. Not russia for all you youngins. He actually worked at the base that the test plane for Tsar Bomba was launched from.

http://www.damninteresting.com/the-most-powerful-bomb-ever-constructed/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba

This was the strongest man made explosion on earth, in human history. Around 1350 times the power of the A-bombs the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagaski COMBINED. over 10x all the bombs used during WW2. And they reduced the yield by around 50% at the last second because Kruschev did not want to much fall out to go back on the soviet union. It was origiannly designed to 2600 times of those two bombs together.

Hydrogen bombs are far stronger than A-bombs(fission vs.. fusion). So strong that they use A-bombs has their blasting cap. (That is a a-bomb has to make the temp to even set these monsters off, like the cap on a stick of TNT.)

I remember how he talked about how they all thought they where going to die. How the bomb might accidentally go off, and the fear the workers had about it. They knew it was ungodly strong, and even rumours on the base about the atmosphere "catching" fire from it. He said the stories on the base where that the pilots where already dead, they just did not realize it yet. (apparenly alot of them thought, that the plane that dropped it would never get away from the blast). But no-one dared bitch or argued about it to superiors. Cause you might end up in Siberia(with your wife, kids, etc) or worse.

Apparently he knew at least one of the pilots. He talked about how much Vodka they drank together. He and the pilot(and most of the base) thought the pilot and the crew was going to die.(apparently they did not get informed about the down grade from 100,000,000 tons of dynamite force to a "mere" 57,000,000 tons of dynamite until right before the 'test'). He said the first conversation he had with the pilot after the test , the pilot said he felt like the hand of god slapped the back of his head and he thought he was dead for about 2 seconds.(feeling the shockwave on his back) He said the clouds glowed and even became almost transparent. BUt since knowing they where on camera the whole crew had to keep going like it was a typical day. lol Imagine thinking you could die and having to keep a "straight" face. The mushroom cloud was at least 5 times taller than Mount Everest. It literally went into space. That man who just broke the freefall record, jumped from a height smaller than its top.

I could go on more details. I could write a essay or 10 about all teh stuff he was apart off. What really makes me think, is the stories he said he heard before the test. Tsar bomba was a 3 stage hydrogen bomb that had lead put into it at the last second to downgrade the force. Supposedly they where talking about a 4 stage bomb. (something on the scale on 10x - 50x full Tsar bomba strength). A bomb so strong that if dropped on New York would kill almost everyone on within 1000 miles of the City Instantly.(like 50 + million dead in a second and another 50 million dead in a week) We are talking about the kinda force that cracks continents and wipes out the dinosaurs. It seems after this test even the "big boss" realized how utterly ridiculous that would be.

They were making them so big because they lacked the advanced targeting the Americans had. So the idea was that a missile carrying such a big load would hit somewhere in an acceptable range near the target and would destroy it with brute force.

Anyway, the Tsar test was a lot more sensible than America's Castle Bravo. Now that was a monumental f*ck-up. At least the Soviets had a rough idea of what the Tsar was capable of and took measures to keep the pilots and population safe.

They were making them so big because they lacked the advanced targeting the Americans had. So the idea was that a missile carrying such a big load would hit somewhere in an acceptable range near the target and would destroy it with brute force.

Anyway, the Tsar test was a lot more sensible than America's Castle Bravo. Now that was a monumental f*ck-up. At least the Soviets had a rough idea of what the Tsar was capable of and took measures to keep the pilots and population safe.

Baranga

The Tsar bomb was impressive but as a weapon it was highly impratical.  While it was extremely powerful it was simply to large to put on any missile that the USSR had, even their biggest bomber had problems carring it.  If I remember correctly the USSR basicly took the largest bomber aircraft they had, removed pretty much everything from it that wasn't essential to flight to maximize the load it could carry, if I am remembering correctly again they even had to remove the bomb bay doors due just to the size of the bomb.  Even with the plane having all non essential components removed when it was carring the bomb it was painfully slow compared to other aircraft.  

It could never really be used as an effective weapon, you couldn't fire it from a missile and any bomber carrying it would be easily detexted to radar and would be moving extremely slow compared to other aircraft.  It was more a sign of soviet engineering and scientifc advancement then of an actual weapon system to be used.  

The Tsar bomb was impressive but as a weapon it was highly impratical.  While it was extremely powerful it was simply to large to put on any missile that the USSR had, even their biggest bomber had problems carring it.  If I remember correctly the USSR basicly took the largest bomber aircraft they had, removed pretty much everything from it that wasn't essential to flight to maximize the load it could carry, if I am remembering correctly again they even had to remove the bomb bay doors due just to the size of the bomb.  Even with the plane having all non essential components removed when it was carring the bomb it was painfully slow compared to other aircraft.  

It could never really be used as an effective weapon, you couldn't fire it from a missile and any bomber carrying it would be easily detexted to radar and would be moving extremely slow compared to other aircraft.  It was more a sign of soviet engineering and scientifc advancement then of an actual weapon system to be used.  

Shadow_Fighter

the tsar bomb is mostly for show and thats why it is impractical.

I like stories like this I've heard a lot of good stories from my family as well. My grandmother worked at the tank plant in Warren Michigan durring WW2. She built parts that went on the bombs that were dropped on Japan. My grandfather was at Omaha Beach Normandy on D-Day. My grandmothers brother was at Pearl  Harbor.