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The Albuquerque "Broken Arrow" Nuclear Accident
In 1957, a B-36 nuclear bomber accidentally dropped a Mark 17 hydrogen bomb while landing at Kirtland Air Force Base just outside of Albuquerque NM. Mark 17 hydrogen bomb, on display at the Nationa…
Oddly, though, the computers were beaten to the punch by mathematician Stanislaus Ulam, who devised a simpler method of doing the calculations by hand–and discovered that the original ideas for a hydrogen bomb would require unrealistic amounts of fusion fuel. The mission was routine—the bomb was being shuttled to Kirtland Air Force Base outside of Albuquerque NM to have its fusing system replaced at the nearby Los Alamos weapons lab as part of a planned upgrade to the Mod 2 version. At Kirtland’s control tower, one of the air traffic officers saw the billowing cloud of smoke from the explosion and, immediately thinking of the nuclear weapon, radioed to the pilot, “Do you have hot cargo aboard?” Meyer’s laconic response was, “Not anymore”.
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