In WW!!, the arming pins weren't pulled until the bomb bay doors were opened. I have no idea about nukes. I thought the bombs dropped on Japan were armed in a similar fashion. I could be wrong. There were some B-52 crashes with live a-bombs on board and none of them blew. One did contaminate a large (for some value of large) area on the east coast.
The big fear we had where I lived wasn't bombers but the ICBM's coming in from the north. The base we lived near was supposedly high on the target list.
Very weird time back in the '50's and '60's. There were even places in Nevada that offered "resort weekends" or something like that to tourists to come and watch the nuke tests. I think my mom still has a brochure from some hotel in a town next to White Sands.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
