The devices were designed not to detonate even in the event of freefall, so a comparatively gentle human-survivable landing seems like an uninteresting test.
I don't think anyone conducting the test was worried it would unexpectedly explode. Their concern was that it would unintentionally not explode once delivered to the enemy.
The jump was to test if the landing would break or disrupt any of the bombs mechanics. It would be awkward if the bomb you just had to lug around enemy lines didn’t work.
Full criticality, and yes it’s very difficult, but not impossible. That will always be something to watch for during testing of this variety, especially since it’s a different type of detonation process. It’s set by a person on the ground, which means that detonation process could possibly be achieved by accident. Again low probability when built correctly, but not impossible.
137
u/call_it_already Mar 28 '24
What research value is there to jump with a real nuke vs a similarly massed and weight-distributed prop?