"The US Aircraft Reactor Experiment (ARE) was a 2.5 MW thermal nuclear reactor experiment designed to attain a high power density for use as an engine in a nuclear-powered bomber. It used the molten fluoride salt NaF-ZrF4-UF4 (53-41-6 mol%) as fuel, was moderated by beryllium oxide (BeO), used liquid sodium as a secondary coolant and had a peak temperature of 860 °C. It operated for a 1000-hour cycle in 1954. It was the first molten salt reactor. Work on this project in the US stopped after ICBMs made it obsolete. The designs for its engines can currently be viewed at the EBR-I memorial building at the Idaho National Laboratory.
HTRE-3.
In 1955, this program produced the successful X-39 engine, two modified General Electric J47s with heat supplied by the Heat Transfer Reactor Experiment-1 (HTRE-1).[5] The first full power test of the HTRE-1 system on nuclear power only took place in January 1956. A total of 5004 megawatt-hours of operation was completed during the test program.[6] The HTRE-1 was replaced by the HTRE-2 and eventually the HTRE-3 unit powering the two J47s. The HTRE-3 used "a flight-type shield system" and would probably have gone on to power the X-6 had that program been pursued."
If fusion reactors were ever perfected, do you think that this means of propulsion could be resurrected?
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2008/10/bring-back-the/
"J3. Nuclear-Powered Jet Airplane Engines. A man with a Geiger counter stands in front of a vertical nuclear reactor intended to serve as a nuclear jet airplane engine. Directly behind it is a second reactor designed as a horizontal reactor engine. Nuclear-powered jet airplanes were conceived as vehicles for carrying nuclear bombs able to fly in a continuous holding pattern around the Soviet Union. But the program never got off the ground. It was made obsolete by long-range missile technology. These are the only two nuclear jet airplane engines in existence. They were developed between 1957 and 1961. Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Idaho Falls, Idaho. 9 November 1984."
http://nonuclear.se/deltredici.j3.atomic.jet.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Nuclear_Propulsion
Nuclear Powered Airplane....?
Re: Nuclear Powered Airplane....?
