VI Center's canisters during the mission, On 6 April 1955, the B-36 airplane again took off from Indian Springs Air Force Base and started climbing to 48,000 feet altitude -- the mean relative density ratio being below 1,06, As usual, one engine went out and the bombing crew announced the altitude change to 46,000 feet, The high altitude detonation went off with an orange-white metallic flash, reported to be brighter than the sun, The usual mushroom cloud was missing; instead, a hugh billowy circle, as if a giant had blown a gigantic smoke ring, Within a very short time the cloud thinned out and became invisible as the 926th TestSquadron (Sampling) pilots could testify because of their difficulty in collecting samples, In spite of some difficulty climbing high enough, L926th pilots who sampled the cloud, were successful, especially, those who sampled long after the shot, On 21 December 195k, Air Force headquarters asked that airplanes obtain samples from the high altitude nuclear shots ". , . at an approximate range of 2,000 nautical miles east of the NPG [Nevada Proving Ground/ at an altitude of 40,000 feet"? The 926th Test Squadron sent two F-8)G samplers, with one C-47 for support, to Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, because weather conditions indicated that the nuclear cloud would drift east, passing over Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee, Raleigh, North Carolina, and would go out to sea somewhere between Norfolk, Virginia, and Myrtle Beach, SouthCarolina,” The two F-8)G samplers flew six sorties while accomplishing the long-range sampling mission, One of the airplanes flew at 10,000 feet altitude and the other flew at 15,000 feet altitude. 13h AFWL/HO The samples SWEH-2-003) ‘5? erg