In the freezing skies above the Arctic Circle, a Soviet aircrew prepares for a terrifying mission. Their Tupolev Tu-95V bomber has been specially modified for this nerve-racking task – stripped of its bomb bay doors, its fuel tanks removed, its hull painted with reflective coating – but nothing can guarantee their survival. They’ve been given a probability of just fifty percent of making it home in one piece.Yet what threatens their lives is not an enemy fighter squadron or anti-aircraft battery; it is their own cargo. Though it barely fits on board, what this bomber carries is designed to unleash a force more powerful than all the explosives used in World War 2 put together, pushing the limits of human destructive capability to heights never before imagined – and never exceeded since.Now, as they approach the release point, the crew can only trust in their calculations, release their payload, and fly as fast as their aircraft will carry them away from the blast caused by the largest nuclear weapon of all time: the Tsar Bomba…