BILL,
     In a message dated 10-23-97 you wrote ...
> The article is rather long, but I will happily SnailMail you a copy if
> you want to send me your address NetMail.
   No Thanks... 47 years later, they can say about what
   they want.
> The year was 1950 and the weapons were atomic bombs with the plutonium
> core removed.  I understand it was standard procedure, with the intent
> being to safeguard nuclear-bomb design secrets, to jetison and explode
> the device if the aircraft developed problems.  The blast would disperse
> about 45 kilograms of uranium into the atmosphere.
  This is mostly in error...   The U2 would not be in the older
 bombs until armed.  Those were a pain to arm that is all I can
 say... Only the HE would explode.
> The first was on Feb. 13, when a B-36 lost three engines en route from
> Fairbanks to Fort Worth.  The aircraft crashed into a mountainside - 17
> crew bailed out and 12 survived.
   That B-36 was from my outfit, 7th Bomb Wing at Carswell.
 I know we lost one outside Goose Bay but did not know about
 another. Major Sheffler was the A/C, Major Snodgrass was
 Radar and Captain Godsey the Navigator.... I do not remember
 the other names of 20 man crew. One gunner was buried in the
 snow for three days and lived.  Not all 36s carried weapons.
 Some were recon.
> The second was on Nov. 10, a B-50 on a military exercise in Gosse Bay on
> its way to Tucson had engine problems and exploded the bomb over the St.
> Lawrence river.  The plane landed safely at a Maine air base.  Since
> this was over populated territory, the cover story was that a load of
> 500 pound practice bombs was dumped.
   Again no fissionable material was dropped... Only the HE.
   Get a good encyclopedia and see how an early implosion type
 weapon was made.  Then you can see how the fissionable material
 was not inserted unless it was to be dropped "in anger."   It
 is no fun to stand in a cold bombay and do that... even in
 practice.......
 'nuff said.
   -=*  Jim Sanders  *=-
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