Nuclear aircraft
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A nuclear aircraft is an aircraft powered by nuclear energy. Research into them was pursued during the Cold War by the United States and the Soviet Union as they would allow a country to hypothetically keep nuclear bombers in the air for extremely long periods of time, a useful tactic for nuclear deterrence. Neither country created any nuclear aircraft in production numbers. One design problem, never adequately solved, was the need for heavy shielding to protect the crew from radiation poisoning.
Early 1950s plan of Ronald Richter to power airplanes with nuclear fusion power, part of the Argentinian Huemul Project, was proven to be a fraud.
The only known experiment by the United States with an operational nuclear reactor on board was NB-36. The Convair X-6 was a proposed experimental nuclear aircraft that never left the drawing board.
The Idaho National Laboratory conducted research to produce a nuclear powered aircraft. Two General Electric turbofan engines were successfully powered to nearly full thrust using two shielded reactors. The two engines complete with reactor system are currently located at the EBR-1 facility south of INL. The Kennedy administration cut funding to the program, however, before an airplane could be designed for the two engines.
The U.S. designed these engines to be used in a new specially designed nuclear bomber, the WS-125. The WS-125 was eventually cut by Eisenhower who was suspicious of Curtis LeMay.[citation needed]
Following discoveries in the early 1990s it was alleged that the Soviet Union had flown a nuclear powered aircraft as early as 1961. They used a modified Tupolev Tu-95 bomber, the Tupolev Tu-119. To simplify issues of shielding, the crew had little protection. It had 2 conventional turboprop engines and 2 experimental 'dirty' direct cycle jet engines powered by a minimally shielded nuclear reactor in the main fuselage. The aircraft flew about 40 times.
Unmanned missiles have been designed to use nuclear thermal rockets, but such designs were considered too dangerous for crews or to actually fly.
[edit] See Also
[edit] External links
- Short overview of the NB-36 programme
- Molten salt reactor experiment (initially intended for aircraft propulsion)
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