Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes. Voting period ends on 15 Jul 2015 at 00:37:19 (UTC)
Original – From the image caption: An air-to-air view of a
Convair NB-36H Peacemaker experimental aircraft, part of the attempt to design a
nuclear powered aircraft deemed the
Convair X-6, and a
Boeing B-50 Superfortress chase plane, during research and development taking place at the Convair plant at
Forth Worth, Texas. This plane was modified to carry a three megawatt, air-cooled nuclear reactor in its bomb bay. The reactor was operational but did not power the plane. The NTA completed 47 test flights and 215 hours of flight time, though this is the only known airborne reactor experiment by the US with an operational nuclear reactor on board.
Reason
It's a plane meant to be powered by nuclear energy. Technical quality is good for its age, and the coolness factor makes me feel like a little boy again, imagining holing up against zombies in the
Diefenbunker... (I was, needless to say, a little strange)
Very interesting historical photograph.
109.153.225.51 (
talk) 13:57, 5 July 2015 (UTC)reply
Support – Aviation-history EV. Interesting that both the U.S. and the
Soviet Union developed test planes but soon abandoned their programs. (Hard to understand how a nuke could actually "power" a jet or turboprop engine.)
Sca (
talk) 14:50, 5 July 2015 (UTC)reply
I'm guessing it was a "small" (how many meters? five? ten?) reactor. Theoretically, such an airplane could stay up indefinitely... no small wonder why they wanted to make it. —
Chris Woodrich (
talk) 15:17, 5 July 2015 (UTC)reply
Support I can't understand why we don't have nuclear powered planes; sounds so safe.
Belle (
talk) 23:43, 8 July 2015 (UTC)reply
But in case of a crash.... likely a nuclear boom. Check out
Sergei Preminin who manually prevented an impending nuclear meltdown on a submarine at the cost of his own life.
Brandmeistertalk 11:40, 10 July 2015 (UTC)reply