"NB-36 Crusader: America's Massive Nuclear-Powered Bomber" Topic

"While nations like Russia continue to struggle with fielding nuclear-propulsion in missiles, the United States was already testing a nuclear-powered bomber all the way back in 1955, in the form of the massive Convair NB-36 Crusader.

The bomber carried a 1-megawatt, air-cooled nuclear reactor that hung on a hook inside its cavernous weapons bay that had to be lowered through the bomb bay doors into shielded underground facilities for storage between flights. Believe it or not… it only gets crazier from there.

In theory, a nuclear-powered bomber could literally stay airborne for weeks at a time (if not longer) and could reach any target on the planet without the need to land or refuel. Today, in the era of intercontinental ballistic missiles with truly global reach and submarine-launched ballistic missiles that can be fired from 70% of the globe, keeping a bomber in the sky for weeks on end seems ludicrous, but for a good portion of the Cold War (specifically from 1960 to 1968), that's exactly what America did…"

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Armand

I had absolutely no idea… Amazing! Crazy!

I recently heard of nuclear powered bombers, both in the USA, and the USSR. They were crazy… I pity the crew that had to be on them for days/weeks, flying them. That would be similar to being on a Submarine, only worse.

That plane was massive! It completely dwarfs the B-29, and that is a large plane… Cheers!

Modified B-36 "Peacemaker"

A really impressive piece of technology that remind us that our gut feelings about what is possible can be very wrong.

I'm not sure if it was the best solution at the time, but it may have been.

It's better than being in a submarine, though. You have windows, and in case of catastrophic failure your odds of escaping a failing vehicle are far, far greater.

Agree about submarine…

Armand

Note that the reactor didn't power the aircraft, which was driven by the usual combination of radials and turbojets. This prototype was really a "proof of concept" design-- yes you can carry a nuclear reactor aloft. With the reactor occupying the bomb bay, the most dangerous threat to an enemy might be to jettison the reactor.

When I first started working as an engineer in the mid-1970's, one if the older enginee3rs used to tell me about being in the Air Force and having to make radiation measurements around this beast while it was airborne. To do this, he told me the plane he was in had to circle the NB-36 in all 3 dimensions while maintaining as much as possible the same distance from the NB-36 in order to get as many readings as possible. He never told me what the readings were.

Thirty years ago while on an inspection at a DOE site near Idaho Falls, I was able to visit and see the two test bed reactors on display in Idaho at the EBR-1 site. They were rather massive machines that had been thoroughly decontaminated.

I like it – the aircraft, concept, and name.

Brilliant!

Of course, being a pilot/crewman on one of those would have been rather troubling/dangerous. Certainly effective at night, until the enemy perfected his nightfighting abilities.

Here's a little music to go with this incredible craft (play it loud):

YouTube link

(smile)

Armand

Now, we have the X-37B, which could be an orbital bomber, with a sortie length of months or years.