NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: David Pike
Date: 2022 May 31, 13:26 -0700
Frank
Grapple 1 wasn’t a complete failure. The yield was 200-300kt, which was about 5x greater than previous tests of fission only bombs, so it would certainly have made your eyes water. It simply didn’t produce the hoped-for megaton plus yield, but it did prove the fission to fusion theory. It just wasn’t very efficient yet. The next test, redesigned Grapple X/Round C, which took place six months later achieved 1.8MT and put Britain into the megaton range.
I was wondering about gas cloud height and rate of climb. Both would be useful in calculating future escape manoeuvres for the delivery aircraft, or if the Valiant hadn’t escaped, explain why. Also, knowing both, might it have been possible to gain some idea of the temperature within the cloud and its rate of decay? DaveP
