@wellerstein So what was the payoff? Continuous flight?
Radiation from one airplane reactor design they tested... those are pretty damned high levels! 5e4 erg/g is 500 rad!pic.twitter.com/Mz8u4yYU5c
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@AstuteDoofus Ideally, but amazingly at rad levels that high they started to run into problems with the aircraft materials getting damaged -
@wellerstein with subs they must be able to use as much shielding as they like (no issue w/weight)? - 2 more replies
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@wellerstein And here's a photo of the two railcar-mounted nuclear-powered jet engines developed for the program.pic.twitter.com/h1iKuHwwnV
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@wellerstein@cstross Nuclear planes were possibly the second-strangest Cold War thing. After nuclear cruise missiles. -
@rsynnott Naah: CIA’s Electric Kitty was quite a bit weirder. Also the UK’s Blue Peacock — the chicken-heated atomic landmine. -
@cstross Oh, yep, the animal-based stuff got very strange. There was also a pigeon-guided missile, though that might have been ww2.
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@wellerstein Here's the NB-36H test aircraft circa 1956. It carried operational reactor (that didn't power plane).pic.twitter.com/dsNhZ2vfUX
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@wellerstein That's why NB-36H incorporated a 12-ton lead and rubber-shielded crew compartment, w/water pockets behind to absorb radiation.Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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@wellerstein That said, 70 MW seems astonishingly high-powered for a single aircraft.Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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@wellerstein@cstross It flies indefinitely. Or at least until all crew is dead from radiation and the aluminium frame starts to melt.Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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@wellerstein Sometimes we should take a few seconds and thank ICBMs for being around and making those things obsolete before they existed.Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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@wellerstein And then we should spend a few minutes cursing ICBMs just to maintain proper balance in the universe.Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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@wellerstein And why the Air Force only recruited test pilots who were beyond child-rearing age.Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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@wellerstein Imagine the consequences of pilot error... you could really make a whole lot of land uninhabitable for ever and everThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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@wellerstein@nuclear94 .....would.not.work.bcuz.2far_over_NOAEL_threshold.would.yield.deaaad.cockpit_crew....lulz.... :-) 50's laugh....Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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@wellerstein@rmathematicus this is why it never became a thing.Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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@wellerstein Here's a short clip of the NB-36H in flight, and showing the loading of the reactor into bomb bay - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8J83RFggzc ….Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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