Tupolev Tu-95V Bear A Tsar Bomba 3D model

Special carrier aircraft to test-drop the largest thermonuclear weapon ever designed, the Tsar Bomba.30 October 1961: At 9:30 a.m., specially modified Tupolev Tu-95V “Bear A” bomber, No. 5800302, under the command of Major Andrey Ergorovich Durnovtsev , departed Olenegorsk Air Base, 92 kilometers south of Murmansk.

The Tu-95 dropped the RDS-220 from an altitude of 10,500 meters over the D-II test range, 15 kilometers north of the Mityushikha Strait on Novaya Zemlya. The bomb was retarded by parachute to allow the Bear time to escape the blast effects. After falling for 3 minutes, 8 seconds, at 11:33 a.m., the bomb detonated 4,000 meters above the surface of Novaya Zemlya.

The Tsar Bomba (code name: Ivan or Vanya), also known by the alphanumerical designation AN602, was a hydrogen aerial bomb, and the most powerful nuclear weapon ever created and tested.