Nuclear Mustangs - hot and down under

[Liberator]

Many people may not be aware that back in 1950-60s , Australia was a key player - and oh too willing due to the government in power at the time - in testing nuclear weapons.

The British Government decided after searching the world in late 1940s that Australia would make a fine test centre.

Nuclear fallout was deemed safe and wouldnt harm anyone - quoted the UK government.

So in the early 1950s, the British began testing nuclear devices off the north western coast of Western Australia at a island called Monte Bello and aslo at Maralinga and Emu - in central and north South Australia.

These various nuclear tests , detonated devices up until 1958. One involved up to a rumoured 98 ktn device at Monte Bello. The US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and were low 20ktns... and they did massive damage.

That 98ktn is only what the UK has released... many suspect it was larger.

Many British and Australian civil and milirary personel who were used in the many tests as support staff, were exposed to dangerously high radiation levels - one group were reported placed around 2miles from a test at Monte Bello in a bunker.

Protection and safety in the 1950s was basic sandals, shorts, goggles and a rad badge - if it worked at all. Checking the exposure was not followed through in cases recorded so most veterans have no idea what their true dose of radiation was.

Tests in South Australia blew fallout - sometimes heavy all around Australia and overseas - even as far as the USA i understand in some recordings. Heavy local contamination was found.

In the 1960s the areas now not doing atmospheric tests were in South Australia used for dangerous tests on fallout of explosions and localised radioactivity effects. Plutonium and many nasty by products were merely bulldozed into the ground in some cases of "cleaning up" in late 1960s in a cheap and poorly done UK cleanup..

In the 1990s-2000s millions of dollars was spent cleaning Maralinga up and if you google it you will see massive cleared areas now showing the pits and testing areas.

Many people totally forget or dont know Australia suffered deeply for these tests.

Most veterans suffered cancers and horrific injuries from radiation. Some even died in 1950-60s at 20-30yrs age in the worst cases. Nuclear weapons testing killed many people and injured thousands more. Kids have grown up with radiation defects even in whole families.

Why is this related to aviation?

Not only were many aircraft used such as Valiant bombers over South Australia, Lincolin bombers for tests sorties, C-47 Dakota for sample and Canberra for tests flight in nuclear clouds... but Australia also contributed a few key interesting targets.

In the Emu tests in Australia in early 1950s, the RAAF used some CAC (NAA licensed) P-51 Mustangs as ground targets. The first ever Mustang A68-1 was one of these aircraft exposed and results recorded.

In the late 1960s, it was salvaged on the spot and restored to running. It was flown out of the test site and onto Adelaide for more checks.

Here are 3 clips showing the "Hot" Mustangs as they were in the 1950s-1960s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8_xQcfl ... r_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snhrqd5R ... r_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA1wvAiu ... r_embedded

I hope this insight makes people aware that Australia has paid a heavy price for nuclear weapon testing.

[the330thbg]

Wow.., I had no idea..,

Thanks for sharing!

[Randy Haskin]

Several of the Emu Mustangs were imported into the US (under some shade circumstances of their own...), with their core parts being used on later Cavalier Mustang builds.

[The Inspector]

Tracked down 5 of the 6 airframes by GOOGLING 'serial numbers of Mustangs recovered from Emu' A68-1 now with Wiley Sanders -7, -30, 72, &-87 most of which became donors @ Cavalier as Randy noted. STREGA was A68-679.

[gary1954]

are there any surviving airframes left besides A68-1 in the Cavalier Conversions? Which airframes received parts from the nuclear survivors and where are they now?

[Lightjug]

Very interesting on all aspects... thank you for sharing

[The Inspector]

Gary, I have no answer to your question, that's way too much fly poop in the pepper for me, but if you go to the GOGGLE site I've listed, you can scroll Commonwealth MUSTANG s/n's until your eyeballs need a relining!

D-FBBD Big Beautiful Doll that was just lost in the Duxford mid air was A68-192

[Chris Brame]

I read about these planes in either AC or WI eons ago - I recall there was another test that had some Supermarine Swifts parked around it like the Mustangs were, but those were buried on-site. Any info on those?

[Tulio]

Many people may not be aware that back in 1950-60s , Australia was a key player - and oh too willing due to the government in power at the time - in testing nuclear weapons.

You say it, as if it was a bad thing.....

Saludos,


Tulio

[p51]

Wow.., I had no idea..,

Yeah, Me neither! I thought I was very well-versed on nuclear weapons history but a lot of your post was info I’d never read before. I found some info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_nu ... _Maralinga

[Tulio]

Many years ago, one of them there aviaton magazines, whose names are not mentioned in polite company no'mo' had an article on the Nuclear Mustangs. If memory does not fail me once again, they had several photos, and the text indicated that some airframes had been smashed up by the blast, and were still at the site. I don't recall if they were still "hot" or not.

Published I think, around late 1970s or early 80s or thereabouts.

Saludos,


Tulio

[Dave Homewood]

Check out this old discussion on my NZ forum about the Mustangs at the test site, and the film about them

http://rnzaf.proboards.com/index.cgi?ac ... 359&page=1

[Ken]

We talked about this one on the civil register:

http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.o ... p?p=257426

[The Inspector]

The USAF did fetch the XF-90 from an old nookaleer test site and dragged it home for indoor display, but the MoF can't get clearance from the Seattle Fire Dept to display an IM-99 BOMARC they have because some of the skins are mildly radioactive, I guess they figure people are going to lick the airframe or something

[Clifford Bossie]

The USAF did fetch the XF-90 from an old nookaleer test site and dragged it home for indoor display, but the MoF can't get clearance from the Seattle Fire Dept to display an IM-99 BOMARC they have because some of the skins are mildly radioactive, I guess they figure people are going to lick the airframe or something

The XF-90 was nuked along with the B-17 flying today as "909" during Operation Tumbler-Snapper in 1952. There were also another B-17 and a mess of P-47s used in that test. The footage of the P-47s shows up in movies and TV programs from time to time (The Atomic Cafe comes to mind). When I see mentionof things like the Emu P-51s I wonder about the fate of those jugs at the Nevada Test Site. In 1965 when t "909" was sold off and flown out of NTS she was part of 800 tons of scrap sold off. The other B-17 was part of that I believe her remains fly as parts of other airframes, but I have never seen a mention of the fate of the P-47s. There were also tanks, APCs, artillery, trucks, rail road cars andeven kitchen sinks used in those tests, so 800 tons would be arrived at fairly easily. But, did the P-47s leave as scrap? Or do parts still sit in yards at NTS?

Anyway, it was neat to see the information about the glow in the dark P-51s in Oz.