[familyop]

BTW, Tsar Bomba was reportedly tested by the Russians at about 50 megatons (originally designed for 100 Mt) and our US Castle Bravo at about 5 megatons (designed for 25 Mt).

[RayChuang88]

The reason why they tested Tsar Bomba at 50 MT was probably because they needed to ensure the crew of the plane dropping the bomb could survive the blast. If they had tested the bomb at full 100 MT yield the scientists estimated that the bomber crew would have been killed from the blast effects of the 100 MT explosion even though the bomb was dropped from high altitude.