Mk 17
 The
mighty Mk 17 was the United States first droppable thermonuclear
weapon or H-bomb. Quite crude by today’s standards, it was
extremely large and heavy; its massive 25-foot long steel casing
was approximately 3.5 inches thick and weighed almost 21-tons. Size
wise, the Mk 17 was the largest nuclear weapon ever built by the
United States
When the Mk 17 was test-dropped, the pilots said it was as if the
bomb had released the aircraft, since suddenly lightened of the
heavy weapon the plane would soar hundreds of feet as the pilot’s
fought to regain control. In combat a gigantic 64-foot diameter
ribbon parachute was designed to slow down or retard the big bomb
giving the delivery aircraft time to escape the deadly effects of
the thermonuclear explosion.
The yield of the Mk 17 was in the megaton range – a megaton
(Mt) being the explosive equivalent to one million tons of TNT.
The bomb was at one time referred to as a Mk 17/24 because the same
weapon case was used for both of these early weapons. The only differences
between the Mk 17 and the Mk 24 were internal.
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