Tsar Bomba Essay

"Now I am become death, destroyer of the worlds," (Robert Oppenheimer). Robert Oppenheimer famously muttered these words on July 16, 1945 after witnessing the calamitous explosion that flattened the testing site of the first atomic bomb. Two nuclear bombs were later dropped on Japan and, thus, the nuclear arms race was born. Almost 16 years later, an explosion occurred so large that it circled the earth three times and windows were blown out of buildings 560 miles away from the drop site. The device that measured the seriousness of atomic weaponry is known as Tsar Bomba. The explosion of Tsar Bomba on October 30, 1961, at 11:32 AM, remains the most powerful detonation in human history. If Tsar Bomba was dropped over Denver, an estimated 1,450,000 …show more content…
If this colossal weapon of mass destruction was dropped on New York City, an estimated 7,333,000 humans would be killed, and that is in only 24 hours. Luckily, it was tested far, far away from human civilization. The building, the dropping, and the aftermath of Tsar Bomba remain some of the most interesting and greatest accomplishments in history.
On July 6, 1961, during a meeting in the Soviet Union, a man named Nikita Khrushchev presented the idea of building and testing a 100 megaton bomb. The Senior Weapons Designer gave the go ahead and the project commenced right away. The project was rushed because Khrushchev wanted the test completed by October 31. The build was carried out by only five men. These men included academicians: Yulii Borisovich Khariton, Andrei Sakharov, Yuri Babayev, Victor Adamsky, and Yuri Trutnev. A project that should have taken months, if not years, took only 112 days or 16 weeks. The …show more content…
Tsar was tested on an island in the Russian Artic Sea called, Novaya Zemlya Island. This test site was thankfully far away from any humans. The bomb was so big that the USSR had trouble finding an aircraft large enough to transport it. The Soviets decided on a T-95 bomber. The T-95 bomber is absolutely gargantuan. It has the radar signature of a flying furniture store. The first T-95 developed the nickname, "The Bear," soon after her maiden flight. But, this enormous plane had an equally enormous job...it was to carry the largest man made explosive in history. The T-95 had to be modified to carry such a large payload of 27 tons, which was just about a third of the weight of the plane it would be carried in. The T-95s bomb-bay doors had to be cut off and part of the fuel was also removed. Nonetheless, almost half of Tsar was protruding from the plane, like a mean dog with its head out the window. Ace pilot, Major Andrei Durnovtsev, would pilot the bomber. On October 31, a winged monstrosity bearing a baby named destruction roared down the runway of a remote airfield in the Kola Peninsula. The T-95 was accompanied by a much smaller Tu-16 observer plane that filmed the test and took air samples. Both planes had been painted white to hopefully help shield radiation. The 50 megaton bomb had been equipped with a massive parachute which was 1,600 sq. meters that would allow the pilot a slim chance of escape. At approximately October