Warbird Information Exchange

watching a documentary on the military channel re: a jettisoned h-bomb that was dropped from a b-47 bomber off savannah georgia in 1958 during an aircraft emergency involving a collision with an f-86 during a training mission. the h-bomb was never found & there have been numerous searches for it since. i've watched the show, but what do you georgia peaches have to say about it?? i don't think i'll be buying an ocean front condo anytime soon their!! supposedly the bomb is in the ocean within 3 miles of shore to this day. yikes!!

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

here is an report from August 21, 2001, http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0821-05.htm
it says "fully primed nuclear weapon, 100 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima"

Don't tell the surfers, they will be lining up waiting for "the BIG one! OK all you ordnance experts, what would 40 yrs of soaking in deep, high pressure salt water do to the triggers on a 50's era nuke? I would think the higher chance is just for a fizzle, and or a spreading leak of some nasty nasty stuff.

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Aviation Illustration Website
http://shepartstudio.com/illustration/

I spent the day at Tybee this spring!! i did NOT know this story until I got home. Crazy stuff. I was under the impression that the nuke part of the bomb was not on the flight, but still there is plenty of nasty stuff under there including high explosives.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

Don't worry about the high explosives, you can find that stuff all over! They detonated a 500 pounder in place in one of our local parks a few years ago. It was a bombing/gunnery range back in the war. Fishermen have caught "things" in their nets too. And then there is the Elementary School over here that they started finding grenades when they were doing some renovations...it had been an Army Grenade range during the war...just didn't clean it up too well before building the school! The radioactive stuff would be rather nasty, especially that close to shore...and not knowing just how intact the trigger is!!!

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Aviation Illustration Website
http://shepartstudio.com/illustration/

This topic comes up every now and again:

http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1273&p=8493&hilit=+b+47+hydrogen+#p8493

Shay
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Semper Fortis

Any one know where that B-47 is now? Was it cut up?

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

Didn't the military recently (last few years) declare that weapon lost and suspend any future attempts to look for it?

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"I can't understand it, I cut it twice and it's still too short!" Robert F. Dupre' 1923-2010 Go With God.

Probably 100 feet deep in the mud by now.....

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All I did was press this red button here...

It would not have been fused, thus it wouldn't blow up.

...and nothing can possibly go wrong, go wrong, go wrong, go wrong......

Consider the source.
They call themselves..."an Internet-based progressive news and grassroots activism organization, founded in 1997.
We are a nonprofit, progressive, independent and nonpartisan organization".

I seriously doubt if they're nonpartisasn..or objective.
Most "progressive" orgainizations (or any ilk) have their mind made up on an issue before the letterhead ink is dry.

I'm not saying the bomb isn't there, but I'd guess it's less of a threat than some make it out to be.

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Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.

i remember during the program they estimated a mud depth of around 18 feet when it hit bottom. since 1958 you may not be far off. the program stated hurricanes & storm surges over the years have not helped in locating it. there have been emissions of radiation detected, but they stated the the silt / mud releases a natural form of radiation. yeah, right...... just like the government to smoke screen. i like 9 eyed red snapper, i'll start fishing their.

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

Hi Chaps!!!
I posted this a while ago

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=30641

Un fortunately the iplayer link does not work now. I listened to it whilst decorating my bathroom! It was good. I stand by what I said in the post. The pilot should be remembered for landing the B-47, NOT that an A bomb (Armed or un armed) was lost.

Rgds Cking

There is an unexploded nuke in the ground near Faro, NC. Most of you folks probably heard about that one. Never heard of the Savannah one. Florence, SC got dropped on by one but, only the "tnt" portion went off.
I know next to nothing about ordinance. Particularly nuclear. My guess is that if it made the initial impact without compromising the outer case, it will take considerable time before corrosion
causes the innards to leak out. 3 miles offshore the water is not very deep in that region. I'm surprised they cannot find it. Then again if they did find it, would they (DoD) tell anyone?

I remember thinking for some reason that it is on display at the Mighty 8th museum. My fuzzy memory remembers seeing the documentary and the pilot being interviewed next to that plane. The plane was said to have never flown again because of the damage.

-B

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documenting restored B-17s and those undergoing restoration to flight: