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33-559: The Convair X-6 was a proposed experimental aircraft project to develop and evaluate a nuclear-powered jet aircraft . The project was to use a Convair B-36 bomber as a testbed aircraft, and though one NB-36H was modified during the early stages of the project, the program was canceled before the actual X-6 and its nuclear reactor engines were completed. The X-6 was part of a larger series of programs, costing US$ 7 billion in all, that ran from 1946 through 1961. Because such an aircraft's range would not have been limited by liquid jet fuel, it

66-493: A 1 megawatt , air-cooled nuclear reactor in its bomb bay. The reactor, named the Aircraft Shield Test Reactor (ASTR), was operational but did not power the plane. Water, acting as both moderator and coolant, was pumped through the reactor core and then to water-to-air heat exchangers to dissipate the heat to the atmosphere. Its sole purpose was to investigate the effect of radiation on aircraft systems. To shield

99-458: A flying testbed as soon as possible, mounting a small reactor in a Tupolev Tu-95M to create the Tu-95LAL. The VVRL-lOO reactor was fitted in the bomb bay of the aircraft, requiring aerodynamic fairings over the top and bottom. From 1961 to 1969, the Tu-95LAL completed over 40 research flights. Most of these were made with the reactor shut down. The main purpose of the flight phase was examining

132-564: A nuclear aircraft program: "[a] nuclear-powered bomber is being flight tested in the Soviet Union. Completed about six months ago, this aircraft has been flying in the Moscow area for at least two months. It has been observed both in flight and on the ground by a wide variety of foreign observers from Communist and non-Communist countries." Unlike the US designs of the same era, which were purely experimental,

165-601: The Idaho National Laboratory . The U.S. designed these engines for use in a new, specially-designed nuclear bomber, the WS-125 . Although President Eisenhower eventually terminated it by cutting NEPA and telling Congress that the program was not urgent, he backed a small program for developing high-temperature materials and high-performance reactors; that program was terminated early in the Kennedy administration. In 1957,

198-640: The Idaho National Laboratory ; Monteview ) to house the X-6 project, but the project was canceled before the planned 15,000 ft (4,600 m) runway was built, necessitated by the expected weight of the nuclear-powered aircraft. In the 1960s, the Soviet Union 's Tupolev design bureau had its own design for an experimental nuclear-powered aircraft, the Tu-119 , which was to be a Tu-95 bomber with two of its conventional turboprops replaced by nuclear-powered turboprops. It

231-606: 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, the program was canceled before the X-6 was completed. The first operation of a nuclear aircraft engine occurred on January 31, 1956 using a modified General Electric J47 turbojet engine. The Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion program

264-517: The MX-1589 project. One of the B-36s was used to study shielding requirements for an airborne reactor, while the other became the X-6. The first modified B-36 was called the Nuclear Test Aircraft (NTA), a B-36H-20-CF (Serial Number 51-5712) that had been damaged in a tornado at Carswell AFB on September 1, 1952. This plane was redesignated the XB-36H, then the NB-36H and was modified to carry

297-534: The Tupolev Tu-95 bomber, but with a reactor fitted in the bomb bay. The aircraft is reported to have been flown up to 40 times from 1961 to 1969. The main purpose of the flight phase was examining the effectiveness of the radiation shielding. A follow-up design, the Tu-119, was planned to have two conventional turboprop engines and two direct-cycle nuclear jet engines, but was never completed. Several other projects, like

330-558: The Air Force and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission contracted with the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory to study the feasibility of applying heat from nuclear reactors to ramjet engines. This research became known as Project Pluto . This program was to provide engines for an unmanned cruise missile, called SLAM, for Supersonic Low Altitude Missile . The program succeeded in producing two test engines, which were operated on

363-581: The Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft (NEPA) project, which conducted studies until the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion (ANP) program replaced NEPA in 1951. The ANP program 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

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396-573: The US, development was curtailed on grounds of cost and environmental concerns. The emerging potential of intercontinental ballistic missiles made the expensive nuclear aircraft program superfluous, and it was scaled back. The next stage in the development of a nuclear-powered bomber would have been the Tupolev Tu-119 , a modified Tu-95, which would have been powered by both nuclear-fuelled and kerosene-fuelled turboprop engines: two Kuznetsov NK-14A nuclear-fuelled engines inboard, fed with heat from

429-405: The article noted that "The Soviet aircraft is a prototype of a design to perform a military mission as a continuous airborne alert warning system and missile launching platform." Photographs illustrated the article, along with technical diagrams on the proposed layout; these were so widely seen that one company produced a plastic model aircraft based on the diagrams in the article. An editorial on

462-531: The book The Zeppelin in the Atomic Age , which promoted the use of atomic airships. In 1959 Goodyear presented a plan for nuclear-powered airship for both military and commercial use. Several other proposals and papers were published during the next decades. The 1 December 1958 issue of Aviation Week included an article, "Soviets Flight Testing Nuclear Bomber", that claimed that the Soviets had greatly progressed

495-604: The conventional Myasishchev M-50 Bounder , a medium-range strategic bomber that performed like the United States Air Force -operated B-58 Hustler . The design was considered a failure, never entered service, and was revealed to the public on Soviet Aviation Day in 1963 at Monino , putting the issue to rest. The Soviet program of nuclear aircraft development resulted in the experimental Tupolev Tu-95LAL ( Russian : LAL- Летающая Атомная Лаборатория , lit.   'Flying Nuclear Laboratory') which derived from

528-484: The crew and those on the ground from radiation; other potential problems included dealing with crashes. Some missile designs included nuclear-powered hypersonic cruise missiles. However, the advent of ICBMs and nuclear submarines in the 1960s greatly diminished the strategic advantage of such aircraft, and respective projects were canceled. In May 1946, the United States Army Air Forces started

561-608: The design was that, since the airflow through the engine was used to cool the reactor, this airflow had to be maintained even after the aircraft had landed and parked. GE built two prototype engines, which can be seen outside the Experimental Breeder Reactor I in Arco, Idaho . A large, 350 ft (110 m) wide hangar was built at Test Area North, part of the National Reactor Testing Station (now part of

594-411: The effectiveness of the radiation shielding, which was one of the main concerns for the engineers. Liquid sodium , beryllium oxide , cadmium , paraffin wax and steel plates were used for protection. The shielding efficiency is disputed: most sources say that it was at least efficient enough to warrant further work, and indeed, the design of the follow-up prototype, the Tu-119, was started. As in

627-496: The engines. They chose to focus on the direct-cycle system from the start, testing ramjets, jet engines and even turboprops. The Tupolev bureau, knowing the complexity of the task assigned to them, estimated that it would be two decades before the program could produce a working prototype. They assumed that the first operational nuclear-assisted airplane could take to the air in the late 1970s or early 1980s. In order to gain experience with operational problems, they proposed building

660-528: The flight crew, the nose section of the aircraft was modified to include a 12-ton lead and rubber shield. The standard windshield was replaced with one made of 6-inch-thick (15 cm) acrylic glass. The amount of lead and water shielding was variable. Measurements of the resulting radiation levels were then compared with calculated levels to enhance the ability to design optimal shielding with minimum weight for nuclear-powered bombers. The NTA completed 47 test flights and 215 hours of flight time (during 89 of which

693-414: The ground. On May 14, 1961, the world's first nuclear ramjet engine, "Tory-IIA," mounted on a railroad car, roared to life for just a few seconds. On July 1, 1964, seven years and six months after it was born, "Project Pluto" was canceled. There were several studies and proposals for nuclear-powered airships , starting with a 1954 study by F. W. Locke Jr. for US Navy. In 1957 Edwin J. Kirschner published

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726-464: The hull of a cruise missile and guarantee a range of flight ten times greater than that of other missiles." The video showed the missile evading defense systems over the Atlantic, flying over Cape Horn and finally north towards Hawaii. To date there is no publicly available evidence to verify these statements. The Pentagon stated that it is aware of a Russian test of a nuclear-powered cruise missile but

759-543: The need to refuel, a nuclear-powered aircraft would have greatly extended range compared to conventional designs. On 12 August 1955 the Council of Ministers of the USSR issued a directive ordering bomber-related design bureaus to join forces in researching nuclear aircraft. The design bureaus of Andrei Tupolev and Vladimir Myasishchev became the chief design teams, while N. D. Kuznetsov and A. M. Lyulka were assigned to develop

792-465: The program progressed, follow-on aircraft would have been based on the successor to the B-36, Convair's swept-wing B-60 . The X-6 would have been powered by General Electric X-39 engines (J47 engines modified to use nuclear energy as fuel), utilizing a P-1 reactor. In a nuclear jet engine, the reactor core was used as a heat source for the turbine's air flow, instead of burning jet fuel . One disadvantage of

825-527: The reactor was operated) between September 17, 1955, and March 1957 over New Mexico and Texas . This was the only known airborne reactor experiment by the U.S. with an operational nuclear reactor on board. The NB-36H was scrapped at Fort Worth in 1958 when the Nuclear Aircraft Program was abandoned. Based on the results of the NTA, the X-6 and the entire nuclear aircraft program was abandoned in 1961. Had

858-452: The supersonic Tupolev Tu-120 , reached only the design phase. In February 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia had developed a new, nuclear-powered cruise missile with nuclear warhead that can evade air and missile defenses and hit any point on the globe. According to the statements, its first flight test occurred in 2017. The missile was said to feature "a small-size super-powerful power plant that can be placed inside

891-550: The system is still under development and had crashed in the Arctic in 2017. A RAND Corporation researcher specializing in Russia said "My guess is they're not bluffing, that they've flight-tested this thing. But that's incredible." According to a CSIS fellow, such a nuclear-powered missile "has an almost unlimited range – you could have it flying around for long periods of time before you order it to hit something". Putin's statements and

924-526: The topic accompanied the article. Concerns were soon expressed in Washington that "the Russians were from three to five years ahead of the US in the field of atomic aircraft engines and that they would move even further ahead unless the US pressed forward with its own program". These concerns caused continued but temporary funding of the US's own program. The aircraft in the photographs was later revealed to be

957-553: The video showing a concept of the missile in flight suggest that it is not a supersonic ramjet like Project Pluto but a subsonic vehicle with a nuclear-heated turbojet or turbofan engine. The new cruise missile is named 9M730 Burevestnik ( Russian : Буревестник; " Storm petrel "). Tupolev Tu-95LAL The Tupolev Tu-95LAL experimental aircraft ( Russian : Летающая Атомная Лаборатория , romanized :  Letayushchaya Atomnaya Laboratoriya , lit.   'flying atomic laboratory') which flew from 1961 to 1965

990-582: Was a modified Tupolev Tu-95 Soviet bomber aircraft , analogous to the United States' earlier Convair NB-36H . It was intended to see whether a nuclear reactor could be used to power an aircraft, primarily testing airborne operation of a reactor and shielding for components and crew. The reactor did not actually power the aircraft. During the Cold War the USSR had an experimental nuclear aircraft program. Without

1023-517: Was never built. Tupolev did build a nuclear reactor carrying counterpart to the NB-36H, the Tupolev Tu-95LAL . Data from The X-Planes. General characteristics Performance Related development Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Related lists Nuclear-powered aircraft One inadequately solved design problem was the need for heavy shielding to protect

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1056-466: Was terminated by President Kennedy after his annual budget message to Congress in 1961. 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 at the EBR-1 facility south of

1089-491: Was theorized that nuclear-powered strategic bombers would be able to stay airborne for weeks at a time. In May 1946, the Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft (NEPA) project was started by the United States Army Air Forces . Studies under this program were done until May 1951 when NEPA was replaced by the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion (ANP) program. The ANP program included plans for Convair to modify two B-36s under

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