nuclear powered plane !

We had a sjow in the UK on Discovery wings the other day with the US and USR both going for nuclear flight- US never really nailed it due to weight limits- USSR, couldn't give a toss about shielding- 50 flights back in the 70's !! I was amazed- only 1 crew member survived- everyone else died of radiation linked illness- I had never heard of this before- scary as hel flying dirty bombs basically (also US fanvied the stupidly tricky liquid metal cooling of the plane- let's make it tricky).
In my mind now we have radiation specific absorbent materials surely this could be brought back up without the weight penalty ?
Interesting declassified stuff....

Isnt this in a kinda wrong place?

And also i think that we already have topics about this..

Originally posted by FULCRUM
Isnt this in a kinda wrong place?

And also i think that we already have topics about this..

Yeah, it would be better placed in the Aircraft Projects forum...
there was a recent post in there on one of the US nuclear aircraft concepts (possibly a reality)...
Here's the link:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

you cant have a nuclear powered plane. the smallest reactors in the world are on aircraft carriers and submarines. can you get an aricraft carrierr or submarine to fly?

Originally posted by FULCRUM
USSR had working nuclear powered planes..

prototypes..

Of Tupolev 'Bear' type..

USA also had some planes that flew under nuclear power..
(i think that the type was B-36, but im not sure.. i have it on one of my books..)

What was that?

Do google on the subject, youll find plenty!



*edit*

"Tu-119 Experimental design to test nuclear engine, converted from Tu-95M"



[Edited on 14-12-2003 by FULCRUM]

I'm of the opinion that we are using supersecret nuclear powered craft. After all, you need a energy source of great power and reliability if you are to utilize field propultion. And if you nullify mass and wieght, to a certain extent, it wouldn't matter how much it wieghed, or how big it is. It could be made of lead, and the weight wouldn't matter.

Originally posted by KrazyIvan
you cant have a nuclear powered plane. the smallest reactors in the world are on aircraft carriers and submarines. can you get an aricraft carrierr or submarine to fly?

Actually you can have a nuclear powered plane. Back in the 1950's the USAF and NASA Flew a nuclear Reactor on a specially modified XB-36 H to test sheilding systems. Here's a link
Nuclear Aircraft

Tim

Originally posted by KrazyIvan
the smallest reactors in the world are on aircraft carriers and submarines. can you get an aricraft carrierr or submarine to fly?

Not to sound light hearted, but fictional media has several flying aircraft carriers. Probably the two more "famous" of these would be from the manga "Robotech" and the Marvel "SHIELD Headquaters".

Granted, those are fictional. But imagine the possibilities. A couple nuclear reactors could create enough power to lift an aircraft carrier. No longer hindered by waterways (and navigating through or around land masses), these flying carriers could enter areas otherwise unreachable, and in less time.

I'd be surprized if we don't already have these, that there are plans in the works.

It was tested at Carswell AFB in Ft. Worth, most north Texans have known about this for a while, was not really secret. At that time period stuff leaked out of the base all of the time. "Hey! What is that plane", "oh, that is our nuclear powered plane". The story goes something like this, the plane was a modified prop powered cargo plane and the reactor was elevated up from under the runway and was then inserted in the plane, testing went on for a while, but ended due to radiation problems and lack of feasability

originally posted by: ghost


Actually you can have a nuclear powered plane. Back in the 1950's the USAF and NASA Flew a nuclear Reactor on a specially modified XB-36 H to test sheilding systems. Here's a link
Nuclear Aircraft

Tim

I'm aware of the NB-36H, but I also know that the USAF instructed Convair to develop an experimental nuclear-powered aircraft based on the B-36, designated X-6. The proposed X-6 would have had not only the six R-4360s and two podded pairs of J47s but also four General Electric X39 turbojets underneath the rear fuselage fueled by a nuclear reactor inside the fuselage of the aircraft. Two B-36s were earmarked for conversion to the X-6, but the X-6 program was shelved in the mid-1950s due to a tight defense budget.

Although the Convair nuclear-powered aircraft designs for the WS-125 and CAMAL requirements (e.g. Model 25, Model 54, NX-2) have been documented in the literature, I should mention that Lockheed carried out design studies for nuclear-powered bombers, including the gigantic L-248-3 flying wing with eight Allison turboprops and a huge wingspan of 380 feet (almost as big as that of the Stratolaunch carrier aircraft), L-195, L-225, CL-293, and CL-326. Like the Convair proposals, however, the Lockheed nuclear-powered bomber projects did not progress beyond the design phase. Lockheed in the 1960s envisaged a gigantic flying aircraft carrier with a 1,120 (!) foot wingspan and powered by four nuclear-fueled turbofans and dozens of lift jets, but the CL-1201 likewise remained a paper project only.

Link:
www.secretprojects.co.uk...
www.secretprojects.co.uk...
www.secretprojects.co.uk...
www.secretprojects.co.uk...
aviationtrivia.blogspot.com...