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The Convair NB-36H was an experimental aircraft that carried a nuclear reactor.

submitted by Boardallday3 to pics 2.9 yearsJun 7, 2022 07:33:26 ago (+6/-0)     (files.catbox.moe)

https://files.catbox.moe/36cm3q.jpg

It was nicknamed 'The Crusader" It was created for the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion program, to show the feasibility of a nuclear-powered bomber.

USAF pursued two different systems for nuclear-powered jet engines, the Direct Air Cycle concept, which was developed by General Electric, and Indirect Air Cycle, which was assigned to Pratt & Whitney. The program was intended to develop and test the Convair X-6, a planned prototype for a fully functional nuclear-powered airplane.

The original crew and avionics cabin was replaced by a massive lead- and rubber-lined 11 ton crew section for a pilot, copilot, flight engineer and two nuclear engineers. Even the small windows were 12" thick lead glass. The aircraft was fitted with a 1-megawatt air-cooled reactor, with a weight of 35,000 pounds. This was hung on a hook in the middle bomb bay to allow for easy loading and unloading, so that the radioactive source could be kept safely underground between the test flights


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[ - ] MrPancake 2 points 2.9 yearsJun 7, 2022 11:51:26 ago (+2/-0)

Everyone; including NASA knows, you only need aluminum foil to block radiation.

[ - ] rhy 1 point 2.9 yearsJun 7, 2022 15:45:48 ago (+1/-0)

[ - ] Boardallday3 [op] 0 points 2.9 yearsJun 8, 2022 18:30:15 ago (+0/-0)

Yep the molten salt reactor experiment MSRE was a part of the ANP program. Cool stuff.

[ - ] Doglegwarrior 1 point 2.9 yearsJun 7, 2022 15:05:15 ago (+1/-0)

100 percent and you only need a space suit of cloth to work in a perfect vacuum.. and for 4 days of travel only need a small amount of air and water and 1969 battery tech was better then today.. thry also had remote cameras to capture the landing and take off... and they could make a live phone call 237k miles from the moon to Australia then to America for a live video phone call... all so real it really really happend the boomers the greatest off spring of the greatest generation ever

[ - ] RedBarchetta 1 point 2.9 yearsJun 7, 2022 10:33:47 ago (+1/-0)

This should be looked at again. I'm no Nuclear scientist, I bet they could make it smaller and more effective.

[ - ] MasklessTheGreat 1 point 2.9 yearsJun 7, 2022 18:10:20 ago (+1/-0)

Nah, the truth is that the nuclear powered aircraft program was shut down. Look into everything going on at the Idaho National Laboratories back then. Specifically HTRE-3. What OP fails to mention is that the reactor on that aircraft was only operating as a gamma and neutron source to test shielding the crew from a reactor, not aircraft propulsion. The HTRE experiments were the jet engines. The government took the Air Force’s keys away after that fun. I know more than I’m going to say because of past jobs I’ve had and “forgetting” what I know but if you find it in the internet then you can choose to believe it. 😉

[ - ] AngryWhiteKeyboardWarrior 0 points 2.9 yearsJun 8, 2022 03:10:17 ago (+0/-0)

A nuclear powered aircraft would probably be more dangerous to your own side, than to the enemy. Not only are you potentially irradiating everyone involved in the daily use of the aircraft, but when they inevitably crash, people in the area are going to have a bad day. Or bad years.