An experimental American airplane, the Convair NB-36H, carried a nuclear reactor that operated in flight, though it did not propel the aircraft, and Russia’s Tupolev Tu-119 operated in similar fashion but neither worked.
US programmes
In May 1946, the US Army Air Forces started the Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft (NEPA) project, which conducted studies until the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion (ANP) programme replaced NEPA in 1951. This programme included provisions for studying two different types of nuclear-powered jet engines: General Electric's Direct Air Cycle and Pratt & Whitney's Indirect Air Cycle. ANP planned for Convair to modify two B-36s under the MX-1589 project. One of the B-36s, the NB-36H, was to be used for studying shielding requirements for an airborne reactor, while the other was to be the X-6.
However, in 1961 the programme was cancelled before the X-6 was completed.
The Oak Ridge National Laboratory researched and developed nuclear aircraft engines. Two shielded reactors powered two General Electric J87 turbojet engines to nearly full thrust.
Two experimental reactors, HTRE-2 with its turbojet engines intact, and HTRE-3 with its engines removed are on display at the EBR-1 facility south of the Idaho National Laboratory.
Airships
Several studies and proposals for nuclear-powered airships, and although a number of interesting and viable proposals were made, the idea of a nuclear-powered airship never really gained traction, possibly because of the Hindenburg disaster along with several other crashed.
This story is from the August 2020 edition of Global Aviator.
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This story is from the August 2020 edition of Global Aviator.
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