THE ATOM: Smoke Rings in the Sky

One morning last week a stately B-36 flew on a steady course more than 40,000 feet above the Nevada wastelands. Miles ahead and 10,000 feet below, Sabre jets flashed back and forth across its path, laying down a grillwork of drifting smoke lines. Then the jets turned and sped out of danger. Two minutes later the big bomber released a bomb triggered to explode six miles in the air. There was an orange-white flash, then a fireball about a half-mile in diameter, a shock wave that danced to the ground 75 miles away, and a giant smoke ring in the sky. The first test of an air-to-air atomic weapon was a lusty success.

Present theory and practice of air tactics do not call for bunching bombers in fleets, since one plane armed with an H-bomb is plenty for any target. But the capability to destroy an air armada, perhaps of airborne troops, with a missile or two might come in handy.