The Only Bomber Too Slow To Outrun Its Own Bomb

It’s November 1952, and just past midnight, floodlights rake across a line of the biggest bombers ever built. The B-36 Peacemaker’s wings are wider than a city block, thick enough for crawl-through catwalks to service the three giant props hanging from each side. But even that is not enough for this mission, and two additional jet pods crown the wingtips.

Below, a ground team guides a classified shape into the bay, a heavy, muted object that strains the cradle under it.

Only the Peacemaker can haul the weapon. What it can’t do is outrun it. Fully loaded, it climbs like a freight ship and turns even slower. The crew has plotted an escape maneuver timed to the second, nose over, full power, jets burning.

This should keep them ahead of the fireball.
But no one has ever tried it with a live thermonuclear weapon.

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Join Dark Skies as we explore the world of aviation with cinematic short documentaries featuring the biggest and fastest airplanes ever built, top-secret military projects, and classified missions with hidden untold true stories. Including US, German, and Soviet warplanes, along with aircraft developments that took place during World War I, World War 2, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf War, and special operations mission in between.

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