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The explosion of Kite, one of the four nuclear fission bombs tested at Maralinga between September and October 1956.
Curator’s notes
The fission bomb codenamed Kite, tested at Maralinga at 2.27 pm on 11 October 1956, was an air-burst over land explosion. It was released by a Royal Air Force Vickers Valiant bomber from a height of approximately 9,000 metres and was the first British atomic weapon to be launched from an aircraft. This clip shows the mute footage shot from two vantage points. Two cameras, a high-speed Vinten HS 300 and a normal-speed Éclair Cameflex, were placed at one site, and a normal-speed Cameflex was placed at the other.
