Airplanes were an inbuilt part of armed combat during WWII , but flying time was limited by each plane ’s fuel content — this was a time before mid - flight refueling engineering science . plane had to land to refuel fairly frequently making it nearly impossible to vanish recollective distance . One proposed solution for the fuel problem was using nuclear energy to power the aircraft .
The Crusader
In 1951 , the Atomic Energy Commission say the first nuclear - power airplane into production . The existing B-36 was selected as the base model for the plane , and was modified to carry a nuclear reactor and shielding to protect the crew from radiation . The airplane ’s name was changed to NB-36 to note the atomic aspect of the plane .
By 1955 , the NB-36 ( top ) , christened “ The Crusader ” by the bunch , was able-bodied to wing with an operational atomic nuclear reactor on board , though the nuclear reactor did not power the planer ’s engines . The Crusader and her crew of five flew 47 trial flights , mostly over New Mexico and Texas , between 1955 and 1957 . The plane ’s reactor was operational during 89 of 215 flight of steps hours .
The purpose of the test flight was two - sheepcote . First , we wanted to see if atomic reactors would operate as expected in an plane ( call back , this is early in the Atomic Age ) , and second , to see if the plane ’s shielding would protect the bunch from the atomic nuclear reactor ’s radiotherapy during flight . This was risky business . In fact , so risky that each trial run flight was shadowed by a shipping sheet full of marines . The leatherneck ' purpose ? To seal off off the radioactive wreck site should the plane crash . gratefully , the marines were never needed to seal off a crash site .
The Engines
General Electric HTRE3 and HTRE1 at the Idaho National Laboratory in Arco , Idaho . These are the two remaining direct cycle , atomic powered airplane engines . Photo courtesyWikimedia Commons .
Once we knew that nuclear reactors operated as have a bun in the oven in flight and that adequate shielding could be provide to a crew , the U.S. turned its attention to the design of a nuclear engine . Two approaches were taken , by two disjoined contractile organ . General Electric lay about designing a direct cycle engine , while Pratt & Whitney worked on an indirect cycle engine .
General Electric ’s blueprint involved a reactor with longitudinal holes , through which stale aviation enter the nuclear reactor . The cold air then moved into tiny holes , where it was heated by the rut put off by the atomic reactor during nuclear fission . The heated air would then lucubrate and produce poke , which in theory would power the aeroplane . The idea is dim-witted in rationale , but quite muddied ; the direct cycle engine basically cast radioactive air all over the post .
Pratt & Whitney ’s design was more complex , but safer . The collateral design involved a nuclear nuclear reactor and a separate propulsion unit . Molten metallic element was used to transfer heat from the reactor to the actuation unit , so there was much less radioactive air in the mixing . But the indirect figure regard much more plumbing , and so was heavy , which was problematic in an aeroplane .
Development of both types of engines hummed along steadily , but slowly , until the end of 1958 .
Aviation Week
On December 1 , 1958,Aviation Weekran an clause title , “ Soviets Flight Testing Nuclear Bomber . ” The article lay claim that the Soviets had flown an atomic - powered airplane more than 40 clip , with corking success . Not to be exceed , the U.S. stepped up their nuclear engine maturation biz .
By 1960 , progress was being made with both the direct and indirect round engines . The direct cycle engine was running routinely , and test flight of steps looked to be not too far off , but it somehow seemed that Eisenhower was spinning his wheels vex the whole programme off the ground . It was a presidential election twelvemonth . Frustrated that Soviets had an operational nuclear airplane before we did , and at Eisenhower ’s seeming ambivalency to it , Kennedy promised to pump extra resource into the nuclear airplane project should he be elected .
Kennedy won the election — and within several month of taking office , he cancelled the nuclear airplane computer programme all together . What chance ? Well , it turns out that Eisenhower ’s ambivalence to the whole thing was warrant . Late in his condition , he found out that the Soviets didnotin fact have an atomic airplane . The whole thing was a hoax . And we bought into it hard .
So , the atomic airplane scheme wither into story . Until the evenfall of the Iron Curtain .
The 1990s
In the ' XC , when the Berlin Wall return and communism crumble aside , we found out that the Soviets did in fact have an nuclear airplane , just not when we thought they did . The Soviets never stopped working on the idea of a atomic airplane , and during the ' 60s , they flew an honest- to - goodness nuclear powered plane — forty or so time throughout the tenner .
So how did they do it ? Shielding the crew from radiation had always been the art object of the puzzler we could n’t land ; in parliamentary procedure to ply sizeable protection to the gang , the shielding would be so heavy that the planing machine would n’t be able to leave the solid ground . How did the Soviets figure out this riddle ? They did n’t . The Soviets ’ nuclear powered airplane did not provide sufficient shielding to the crew , and the first bunch fellow member pop off three yr after the test flight from his vulnerability to radiation .
