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September 23, 2006
The Quest for a Nuclear Airplane
As an indirect result of some work I've been doing, it came to my attention that the United States Air Force once attempted to build a Nuclear Airplane. Today, it seems absurd to even consider, but at the height of the Cold War, in those dark days after Sputnik, American politicians were being bombarded with reports that the Russians were ahead in the race to build a nuclear-powered jet airplane.
Accoridng to Herbert F. York:
A number of very difficult problems very soon became evident. It turned out that there were then no materials available which would (1) stand up to the high-intensity nuclear radiation which necessarily existed throughout the interior of the reactor, (2) resist corrosion by the very hot air which passed through the reactor at great speed, and (3) be guaranteed not to leak any of the highly radioactive fission products into the exhaust airstream.
It also soon became painfully clear that there was a very difficult shielding problem. As with other high-power nuclear reactors, it was necessary to surround this one with a heavy shield in order to protect the pilots, and any instruments or other cargo which the airplane might be carrying, from the intense radiation always generated by these devices. The shielding problem is especially difficult in this case because the shield must be light enough to be flown and because it must be pierced in such a way as to allow large masses of air to pass through it at high speed without creating too large a radiation leak.
A third, very basic set of problems was related to potential operating hazards such as would obviously be associated with a crash landing of such an airplane or even with lesser accidents. While most of the intellectual effort devoted to solving these problems was of the usual serious and straightforward kind, occasionally some bizarre proposals arose. One which was discussed quite seriously was that older men (i.e., men beyond the usual age for begetting children) should be used as pilots so that genetic damage from radiation would be held at a minimum and because older people are generally more resistant to radiation than younger ones.
Sometimes, a bad idea just refuses to die. Apparently, even though Kennedy killed the Nuclear Airplane in the '60's, the Air Force is still hell-bent on breathing life into this boondoggle.
Posted by Peenie Wallie on September 23, 2006 at 8:23 AM
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