Operation Tumbler-Snapper

In the spring of 1952, the U.S. Defense Nuclear Agency conducted a series of atomic bomb drops and tower shots at the Nevada Proving Ground, code-named Operation Tumbler Snapper. One of Tumbler-Snappers objectives was to see how soldiers and military equipmentincluding one of only two Lockheed XF-90 fighters ever builtreacted to the detonation. Jet aircraft (including the XF-90 and some F-47s) were seen to be less damaged by the atomic blast than were the bombers (a B-45, a B-29, and some B-17s). This excerpt from a contemporary U.S. Air Force documentary about the Tumbler-Snapper program focuses on the airplane testing. Source: Internet Archive/ US Dept. of Energy (05:14)