Warbird Information Exchange

Whatever happened to the "nuclear test effects" ships that flew in nuclear tests over the Nevada and Pacific and Australian nuclear bomb tests sites in the 1940-60s?

Most aircraft that flew into clouds so became seriously iraddiated with high readings of ionzing radiation.

RAF Canberra bombers flew directly into the hot fireball cloud as it rose and cooled... now they were seriously affected.

Most US based B-29, B-50, B-47 and B-52 and fighters types were built as test ships eg NB assigned - very rarely production line plane tho so were assigned straight off the production line.

Aircraft such as Dave's Dream - B-29, Tiger xxx - a B-52 and others are known by photos in the use at the ranges.

Most planes were scrapped from what i have found but where too? Did any survive?

One thing that still sickens me to this day is the lack of crew protection. On many missions crews wore nothing more then - shirts, short, headset and a shoes - RAAF crews as told in standard use of Lincolin and C-47 operations on cloud sampling flights.
RAF and USAF crews in some cases has basic radiation protection.

I do wonder did cloud sampling crew die a very young death from cancer? Information seems to say yes they did.

Last year, Smithsonian Air & Space Mag (June/July edition) had a story on the Lockheed XF-90 that had been used in a couple different nuke tests. A few years back, it was noticed, sitting out there in the desert. It was deep cleaned and recovered. It will be displayed at the NMUSAF in "as is" condition, as it is a historical footnote both to aviation and the cold war testing.

Several of the surviving Hellcats were used as drones for the atomic tests. There was a past post that showed a few of them one had a pink tail if I remember correctly One is at the Bradley Museum another is at the Smithsonian. Thanks Mike

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IF YOU CAN FIND IT WE CAN FIX IT

I recall reading many years ago that the RAAF Mustangs were recovered from Coober Pedy and that one or more was restored to flying condition. Perhaps our friends in Australia can shed more light?

Cheers!

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Dean Hemphill, K5DH
Port Charlotte, Florida

The Colling's Foundation's B-17G "909" was involved as a target in some of the nuclear tests.

P-51D Mustang A68-1, once known as Miss Ashley, was one of the RAAF Mustangs involved as a target aircraft in the British nuclear testing in Australia.

There are quite a few survivors it seems...

Richard

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Richard Mallory Allnutt - Photography - http://www.rmallnutt.com

Good replies.

Does anyone actually know tho ,of aircraft that flew into the clouds or did sampling tests or effect tests that surivied?

The above mentions only ground targets in reality - they were ground targets - not flying.

Anyone have photos of sample flights or effect test flying planes?

What about USAF aircrews and RAF aircrews ?
Did they die young death for serving in such devastating conditions in the ground zero flying missions?

Ive read that some B-47 and B-66 and B-52 planes/crews were indeed lucky to survive at Bikini, due to early drops time and ended up with severe overpressure, heat and blast damage.

"Pink 14" (with "Janie" chalked on the nose) is the Hellcat now hanging from the ceiling out at Udvar-Hazy. She's now painted in the tricolor scheme with red-surround national insignia as #37 from Yorktown's CVG-5. The original #37 is in that picture posted a few days ago that was washed out so bad that some of the Hellcats looked like they were painted in the Atlantic ASW scheme (gray over white).

There's a disclaimer on her information board saying that she was a Bikini drone and that any residual radiation is not a threat to human health or life.

During the H-bomb testing program a B-36 (an F, I think) was damaged while flying in the general vicinity of the shot. I believe it was the Castle Bravo test. The airplane was ferried back to Fort Worth and eventually written off, ostensibly because of the structural damage it sustained. I don't know how "hot" it was, or if that had anything to do with its retirement. Convair also had the NB-36H up on the north end of the property later on. Supposedly, parts of a B-36 were shipped to a nuclear waste storage facility, I guess parts of one of these?

Scott

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkTW2xAE ... re=related

Handy video i just found.. USAF crew effect video 1950s

I just found out nuclear testing also occurred in Tatum Salt Dome near Hattiesburg, Mississippi of all places.. they tested a few?? low yeild kilton devices in 1960s...

Pick up the ATOMIC BOMB MOVIE it has a lot of interesting info on the atomic tests Thanks Mike

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IF YOU CAN FIND IT WE CAN FIX IT

That film is worth it just for the musical soundtrack played during the shot footage.