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During the early days of the cold war, when tensions between the United States and the Soviet ran high, the nuclear arms race reached its peak. The United States had successfully tested its first thermonuclear weapon , The Ivy Mike. The Soviets feared that this gave the United States a position capable of nuclear blackmail as the Soviet Union still had no feasible way to deliver nukes on American soil while the Americans did. The Soviet premiere at the time,Nikita Khrushchev realised the need for a propaganda win to keep the Americans at bay while easing the worries of Soviet hardliners. He announced the imminent test of a 50Megaton nuclear bomb. The development of a super-powerful bomb began in 1956.
The Tsar Bomba was a three stage bomb with a yield of 50 Megatons. This is equivalent to about 1,570 times the combined energy of the bombs that obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The design bureau initially realised that it was possible that the bomb design had a yield of 100 Megatons due to its three stage nature. But the Soviet designers quickly abandoned the idea and replaced the final stage reactions with nuclear passive material to reduce the yield as the pilots would have a zero chance of survival once the bombs detonated and the high level of radioactive contamination that would follow.
The bomb, weighing 27 tonnes (30 short tons), was so large (8 m (26 ft) long by 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) in diameter) that the Tu-95V had to have its bomb bay doors and fuselage fuel tanks removed. The bomb was attached to an 800-kilogram (1,800 lb), 1,600-square-metre (17,000 sq ft) parachute, which gave the release and observer planes time to fly about 45 km (28 mi) away from ground zero, giving them a 50 percent chance of survival.
Once the bomb exploded , its own shockwaves prevented the fireball from reaching ground zero.
The flare was visible at a distance of more than 1,000 km (620 mi).
The explosion's nuclear mushroom rose to a height of 67 km (42 mi)
The blast wave circled the globe three times, with the first one taking 36 hours and 27 minutes.
Glass shattered in windows 780 km (480 mi) from the explosion in a village on Dikson Island.
The Tsar Bomba was not a feasible weapon during war due to its weight and lack of precision. But it gave the Soviets the propaganda win they needed. They made up for their lack of American precision with sheer brute power.
It also demonstrated there was no fundamental limit to power of thermonuclear charges.
The Tsar Bomba was a three stage bomb with a yield of 50 Megatons. This is equivalent to about 1,570 times the combined energy of the bombs that obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The design bureau initially realised that it was possible that the bomb design had a yield of 100 Megatons due to its three stage nature. But the Soviet designers quickly abandoned the idea and replaced the final stage reactions with nuclear passive material to reduce the yield as the pilots would have a zero chance of survival once the bombs detonated and the high level of radioactive contamination that would follow.
The bomb, weighing 27 tonnes (30 short tons), was so large (8 m (26 ft) long by 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) in diameter) that the Tu-95V had to have its bomb bay doors and fuselage fuel tanks removed. The bomb was attached to an 800-kilogram (1,800 lb), 1,600-square-metre (17,000 sq ft) parachute, which gave the release and observer planes time to fly about 45 km (28 mi) away from ground zero, giving them a 50 percent chance of survival.
Once the bomb exploded , its own shockwaves prevented the fireball from reaching ground zero.
The flare was visible at a distance of more than 1,000 km (620 mi).
The explosion's nuclear mushroom rose to a height of 67 km (42 mi)
The blast wave circled the globe three times, with the first one taking 36 hours and 27 minutes.
Glass shattered in windows 780 km (480 mi) from the explosion in a village on Dikson Island.
The Tsar Bomba was not a feasible weapon during war due to its weight and lack of precision. But it gave the Soviets the propaganda win they needed. They made up for their lack of American precision with sheer brute power.
It also demonstrated there was no fundamental limit to power of thermonuclear charges.
