Jimmy Robinson: The first man in history to give life to discover new elements
September 22, 20245 Mins Read

November 1, 1952. An F-84 Thunderjet aircraft flies over the vast waters of the Pacific Ocean. Captain Jimmy Robinson, a US Air Force pilot, is sitting in the cockpit. He is breathing heavily in excitement. As far as one can see outside, one can see the vast blue waters of the Pacific Ocean. It is an unearthly sight. But Robinson has no time to look at that.

Jimmy Robinson

Mentally preparing himself for the upcoming mission. The most breathtaking experience of a career is about to happen within minutes. Robinson, 28, has experience as a 'bombliner' on Liberator bombers during World War II. But the level of risk of this mission does not compare to that of wartime. Because, in no time, he is going to enter the terrible mushroom cloud with the F-84 plane!

The dome—or rather, mushroom-shaped smoke coil—that forms at the site of an atomic bomb explosion is known as a mushroom cloud. The US Air Force discovered, quite by accident, that it was possible to fly through this monstrous smoke plume. The incident started in May 1948. Air Force Lt. Col. Paul Faulkner was in a B-29 observing the site of the atomic bomb explosion.

At that time, he accidentally got too close to the mushroom cloud. Facing some challenging events, Faulkner was able to quickly get out of it fairly unscathed. He returned safely to the main base with the plane. He proudly reported back—none of us died, not even sick.

Adventurer Paul Faulkner thoroughly enjoyed the experience of entering a mushroom cloud for a short time. So later he recommended the formation of a special squadron to the higher authorities to do the same again. But this time he wants to go there with proper preparation with various scientific instruments, so that he can bring with him the sample of the terrible cloud.

Finding pilots capable of conducting scientific missions through mushroom clouds was a daunting task. Even in normal conditions handling a jet aircraft is quite challenging. Even the slightest distraction spells certain death. However, in order to conduct a scientific mission in the cloud, the pilot has to pay attention to a set of scientific instruments and recording devices in addition to flying the aircraft. At the same time, you have to keep an eye on the panels of some radiation measuring devices.

Apart from recording the data obtained from these, he has to report at regular intervals to the scientists who are kept at a safe distance. It is very difficult to do so many different tasks simultaneously while flying in clear skies! And with so much to handle in the confines of disturbed skies near the epicenter of a nuclear blast, it would be somewhat impossible for any pilot with less experience and skill to achieve the mission's objective.

But the brave pilot Captain Jimmy Robinson had the courage and skill to successfully complete such a mission. During World War II, his plane was nearly destroyed by enemy fire in Bulgaria. He was forced to leave the plane.

Robinson was calm and relaxed during his parachute descent. While floating in the void, he checked his position on the map. Then he lit a cigarette and impatiently waited to touch the ground. This incident gives some indication of Robinson's great mental strength.

In April 1952, he successfully completed a practice sampling mission and officially qualified himself for a mushroom cloud dive. No one could have imagined then, what cruel fate awaited the fate of this brave pilot.

Captain Robinson was waiting at the main base with other pilots, ready for the mission since that morning. A perfectly elliptical halo of bright orange color appeared in the sky when the explosion occurred at a predetermined time. It gradually turned into a mushroom cloud of dust and coral, extinguishing all light in the world, giving a long visible scream.

Three teams embark on an adventurous mission to collect samples of the blast cloud. The first of these, Red Flight, took off nineteen minutes after the explosion. The team consisting of two F-84 Thunderjets was led by Lt. Col. Virgil Mironi. Their destination was the peak of Megh, i.e. at a height of 29 thousand meters. But the planes reached the last point of their capabilities when they climbed above 17 thousand meters.

In fact, the F-84 jets were designed to fly safely up to a maximum altitude of 12,000 meters. Only one road was open to Virgil Mironi then. That is to fly the plane through the scattered dust and the terrible random turbulent air currents of the stem part of the mushroom cloud!

Only five minutes into entry, both of the first group's aircraft were in critical condition due to extremely hostile weather conditions. Their engines screamed as if surrendering. As a result, the pilots of the first group were forced to quickly leave the cloud and move to a safe shelter.

Now it's Jimmy Robinson's turn. By then, the ominous mushroom cloud had plunged tiny Ilugelab Island, the site of the Ivy Mike bomb blast—part of the Marshall Islands—in pitch darkness. Jimmy flew there with pilot Bob Hagan in the driver's seat of another nearby F-84 Thunderjet. Gradually the clear clear sky started disappearing from the eyes. It was as if they were running to the door of man-made hell willingly and knowingly.

Lieutenant Mironi had already informed the Robinsons in a radio message about the terrible environment inside the cloud. He also forewarned about a reddish glow like a burning flame seen there and unusual behavior of scientific instruments. But these warnings did not work much. As soon as they touched the border of the mushroom cloud, they had to fight directly with the angry environment. Robinson's fighter jet was rocking violently in the storm. After a desperate effort, he finally regained control of the aircraft. Also able to turn on auto pilot mode.

Jimmy Robinson's F-84 had a single filter attached to the wing. Their main purpose is to trap the tiny particles from the explosion. The neutron flux value at the core of the nuclear explosion was about 1024 neutrons/cm2. Neutron capture reactions were taking place there at an astonishing rate.

This has never been seen before in the world. The starving nuclei were gobbling up neutrons like gobbles, producing a variety of strange isotopes like uranium-255. Captain Jimmy Robinson is the first man in history to sacrifice his life in search of new elements. Sadly his body was never found.