Nuclear-powered aircraft
A nuclear-powered aircraft is a concept for an
One inadequately solved design problem was the need for heavy shielding to protect the crew and those on the ground from radiation; other potential problems included dealing with crashes.[1][3]
Some missile designs included nuclear-powered hypersonic cruise missiles.
However, the advent of
U.S. programs
NEPA and ANP
In May 1946, the United States Army Air Forces started 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 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.[citation needed][4]
The first operation of a nuclear aircraft engine occurred on January 31, 1956 using a modified General Electric J47 turbojet engine.[5] The Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion program was terminated by President Kennedy after his annual budget message to Congress in 1961.[1]
The
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.[citation needed]
Project Pluto
In 1957, the Air Force and the
Airships
There were several studies and proposals for nuclear-powered airships, starting with a 1954 study by F. W. Locke Jr. for US Navy.[7] In 1957 Edwin J. Kirschner published the book The Zeppelin in the Atomic Age,[8] 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.[9]
Soviet programs
Soviet nuclear bomber scare
The 1 December 1958 issue of
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".[12] These concerns caused continued but temporary funding of the US's own program.[citation needed]
The aircraft in the photographs was later revealed to be the conventional
Tupolev Tu-119
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 the Tupolev Tu-95 bomber, but with a reactor fitted in the bomb bay.[1] The aircraft is reported to have been flown up to 40 times from 1961 to 1969.[14] 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 the supersonic Tupolev Tu-120,[15] reached only the design phase.[16][17]
Russian programs
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.[1] 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 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.[18][19][20][21] 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 the system is still under development and had crashed in the Arctic in 2017.[22][23][24]
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."[25] 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"[26] Putin's statements and 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.[citation needed]
The new cruise missile is named 9M730 Burevestnik (Russian: Буревестник; "Storm petrel").[27]
See also
- Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion
- Aircraft Reactor Experiment
- Georgia Nuclear Aircraft Laboratory
- Induced gamma emission speculated as power source for aircraft
- List of nuclear-powered aircraft
- Lockheed Martin Compact Fusion Reactor
- Nuclear thermal rocket
Citations
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Trakimavičius, Lukas. "The Future Role of Nuclear Propulsion in the Military" (PDF). NATO Energy Security Centre of Excellence. Retrieved 2021-10-15.
- ^ Gallagher, Sean (22 March 2018). "Best bad idea ever? Why Putin's nuclear-powered missile is possible… and awful". Ars Technica. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
- ^ Ruhl, Christian (January 20, 2019). "Why There Are No Nuclear Airplanes". The Atlantic. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
- ^ Waid, Jack (21 June 2021). "Manned Nuclear Aircraft Program" (PDF). US Dept. of Defense. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
- hdl:2060/19640019868.
- ^ "U.S. QUIETLY KILLS ITS ATOM MISSILE; Project Pluto Canceled After Outlay of $200 Million". The New York Times Company. 13 July 1964. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
- ^ Atomic Airships by John J. Geoghegan. Originally published in the January 2013 issue of Aviation History magazine.
- ^ The Zeppelin in the Atomic Age: The Past, Present, and Future of the Rigid Lighter-Than-Air Aircraft, Kirschner, Edwin J. Published by University of Illinois Press (1957)
- doi:10.4271/600278.
- ^ Soviets Flight Testing Nuclear Bomber, Aviation Week, 1 December 1958, p. 27.
- ^ "Modelarchives". modelarchives.free.fr. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
- ^ Soviet Nuclear Plane Possibility Conceded, Ford Eastman, Aviation Week, 19 January 1959, p. 29.
- ^ "AURORA Russian Nuclear Bomber : the Sources". Modelarchives. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
- ^ Aitken, A. (producer), Kerevan, G. (writer/executive producer), "The 'Planes That Never Flew': The Nuclear Bomber", Alba Communications (for Discovery Europe), 2003
- ^ ""120" (Ту-120): Дальний сверхзвуковой бомбардировщик с ядерной силовой установкой" [«120» (Ту-120): Long-range nuclear-powered supersonic bomber] (in Russian). testpilot.ru. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
- ^ Buttler & Gordon 2004, pp. 78–83
- ^ Colon 2009
- ^ "Putin Reveals New Russian Nuclear Missile Defense". www.defenseworld.net. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
- ^ "Putin declares creation of unstoppable nuclear-powered missile". TASS. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
- ^ Troianovski, Anton (1 March 2018). "Putin claims Russia is developing nuclear arms capable of avoiding missile defenses". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
- ^ "Putin says 'no one in the world has anything like' all-powerful nuclear missile". USA Today. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
- ^ Bump, Philip (1 March 2018). "What Russia's newly announced nuclear systems actually mean". Retrieved 2 March 2018 – via www.washingtonpost.com.
- ^ MacFarquhar, Neil; Sanger, David E. (1 March 2018). "Putin's 'Invincible' Missile Is Aimed at U.S. Vulnerabilities". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
- ^ Trevithick, Joseph (2 March 2018). "U.S. Has Been Secretly Watching Russia's Nuclear-Powered Cruise Missiles Crash and Burn". thedrive.com. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
- ^ Brumfiel, Geoff (March 2018). "Experts Aghast At Russian Claim Of Nuclear-Powered Missile With Unlimited Range". Parallels. NPR. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
- ^ Baumgartner, Pete (March 2018). "Q&A: Arms Expert Says Putin's Weapons Boasts Look Like 'Overkill'". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
- Jane's Information Group. Archived from the originalon 31 July 2018. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
General and cited sources
- Colon, Raul (March 7, 2009). "Soviet Experimentation with Nuclear Powered Bombers". The Aviation History On-Line Museum. Archived from the original on 6 January 2012. Retrieved 3 January 2012.
- Buttler, Tony; ISBN 1-85780-194-6. Archived from the originalon 17 February 2012. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
External links
- Short overview of the NB-36 programme
- Molten salt reactor experiment (initially intended for aircraft propulsion)
- SOVİET TOP SECRET NUCLEAR AIRPLANE M-60 Akademi Portal by Akademi Portal web site (in English)
- COMPREHENSHIVE TECHNICAL REPORT GE DIRECT AIR CYCLE AIRCRAFT NUCLEAR PROPULSION PROGRAM (in English)
- "Flyable" Reactors & Neutron Coupling (in English)
- Descriptions of the Tu-95 experiment: [1] [2] (in Russian)
- SOVİET TOP SECRET NUCLEAR AIRPLANE M-60 Akademi Portal by Akademi Portal web site (in English)
- The Decay of the Atomic Powered Aircraft Program, retrieved 2009 Dec 21, includes a bibliography
- Flying on Nuclear, The American Effort to Built [sic] a Nuclear Powered Bomber by Raul Colon, retrieved 2009 Dec 21
- "A Scientist Preview: The First Atomic Airplane" by Gerald Wendt for 1951 a very good article with illustrations on the subject of using an atomic reactor to power an aircraft
- "A Round Table Conference Looks At - The Atomic Airplane" Popular Mechanics, April 1957, pp. 100–105.