The pilots who dropped this bomb were told they had a 50/50 chance of getting home; Russia kept this film secret for 59 years.
This is the largest explosion humans have ever made, about 50 megatons. The blast wave still reached their plane and threw it almost a kilometer down. Look at his glow.
It was launched on October 30, 1961 at the North Pole. The bomb weighed about 27 tons and was 8 meters long. He crashed with a giant parachute to give the crew a chance to escape. The plane was painted white to bring back warmth.
It exploded about 4 km above the ground, two thousand times more powerful than Hiroshima. By then, was more than 100 kilometers away, and the blast was still reaching him.
It was originally designed for 100 megatons. The engineers cut it in half, because the full version would have created massive radioactive fallout and left no chance for the crew.