Nuclear powered airliners

wrote:
I propose the following:
Nuclear Tow Planes.

Not New. Idea's been around for 50 years.


Amen to that. Scott, I'm sure you're familiar with Martin Co. proposals
to use nuclear engines in a P6M Seamaster inspired flying boat. In
addition I read that the XB-70 initially was supposed to be powered by
nuke-jets too. The nearest anyone got to an actual flying nuclear
aiprlane was the NRB-36 which had a reacotr on board but did not poweer
the engines. It also flew in formation with a C-119 full of Marines to
cordon off a crash site in case the NRB-36 went down. Funny thing about
airplanes... occasionally they fall from the sky! That in my opinion is
the biggest drawback to a nuke jet.

Gene DiGennaro
Baltimore, Md.

wrote:

wrote:
I propose the following:
Nuclear Tow Planes.

Not New. Idea's been around for 50 years.


Amen to that. Scott, I'm sure you're familiar with Martin Co. proposals
to use nuclear engines in a P6M Seamaster inspired flying boat. In
addition I read that the XB-70 initially was supposed to be powered by
nuke-jets too. The nearest anyone got to an actual flying nuclear
aiprlane was the NRB-36 which had a reacotr on board but did not poweer
the engines. It also flew in formation with a C-119 full of Marines to
cordon off a crash site in case the NRB-36 went down. Funny thing about
airplanes... occasionally they fall from the sky! That in my opinion is
the biggest drawback to a nuke jet.

The NB-36 was such a wonderful idea that the USSR simply had to
follow suit. They did something almost identical with a Tu-95
variant (Tu-95LAL, LAL for Flying Atomic Laboratory). Haven't read whether
it was similarly shadowed by a detachment of paratroopers
whose job was, in case of crash, to surround and cordon off
the area, trying not to take too many rads while the higher-ups
figured out what to do.

Bill Keel

Derek Lyons wrote:
[...]
ROFTLMAO. Handwaving madeup equations rather than actually *thinking*
and *analyzing* what the numbers means illustrates nicely what an
idiot you are.

Where as a post approaching invective in tone, and providing neither
numbers nor analysis, provides...what?

/dps

William C. Keel wrote:

The NB-36 was such a wonderful idea that the USSR simply had to
follow suit. They did something almost identical with a Tu-95
variant (Tu-95LAL, LAL for Flying Atomic Laboratory). Haven't read whether
it was similarly shadowed by a detachment of paratroopers
whose job was, in case of crash, to surround and cordon off
the area, trying not to take too many rads while the higher-ups
figured out what to do.



Which would probably be to shoot the crew that crashed it to keep the
program secret.
Then shoot the people who shot the crew, because they know why the crew
were shot....and then...
There's info on the Tu-119 Atomic Bear he
http://makeashorterlink.com/?C20253AFB
There's also the funny story of the "Atomic Bounder" model kit here*:
http://modelarchives.free.fr/archive...Bounder_K.html
....and where it came from:
http://modelarchives.free.fr/archive...Bounder_S.html
Since the commies are building one, we had better build one too!
Note that photo of the Bounder flying with the MiGs...if your nuclear
turbojets leave smoke trails, you've got a _big_ problem. :-)

* I had that model as a kid BTW- I also had either a Gorgo or Reptilicus
comic book that had the plane in it.
It was bright red, of course.

Pat

In article ,
Pat Flannery wrote:


Any estimate of how expensive jet fuel must be before this becomes
economical?


Here's one for you: Assuming the beam comes down from a powersat in GEO,
what are you going to do about the time-lag if the aircraft unexpectedly
moves- say due to air turbulence?

Use intermediate power sats in much lower orbits. This also keeps the
aperture of the transmitter (IR, not microwave) down to a reasonable
size.

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
...

Me, I want one of these:
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaver.../1805/ion.html
I'll hover about glowing in the night dressed as a alien Gray, hurling
bull penis walking sticks at unsuspecting passerbys and occasionally
using the electrically charged downwash to create crop circles. :-)

Please also take a look at "How to Design a Flying Saucer," by Dr. Richard
J. Rosa in _Analog_ magazine, September 1972, pp. 64-71. It's a fanciful
but not impossible proposal to create a VTOL lifting body using
magnetohydrodynamic techniques. Tricky part: getting air to ionize
efficiently.

Besides, Rosa's design looks a whole lot like the classic flying saucer.


Jim McCauley

Jim McCauley wrote:


Please also take a look at "How to Design a Flying Saucer," by Dr. Richard
J. Rosa in _Analog_ magazine, September 1972, pp. 64-71. It's a fanciful
but not impossible proposal to create a VTOL lifting body using
magnetohydrodynamic techniques. Tricky part: getting air to ionize
efficiently.

Besides, Rosa's design looks a whole lot like the classic flying saucer.




The ones in "The Future Of Flight" also look like classic flying saucers
due to the fact that their upper surfaces are reflectors designed to
focus laser beams hitting them from above into a highly focused ring of
energy around their periphery.

Pat

Pat Flannery wrote:
richard schumacher wrote:

Any estimate of how expensive jet fuel must be before this becomes
economical?


Here's one for you: Assuming the beam comes down from a powersat in GEO,
what are you going to do about the time-lag if the aircraft unexpectedly
moves- say due to air turbulence?

Losing power for 1/2 second wouldn't be a problem. The plane would have
a spinning reserve.

In article ,
richard schumacher wrote:
In article ,
Pat Flannery wrote:


Any estimate of how expensive jet fuel must be before this becomes
economical?


Here's one for you: Assuming the beam comes down from a powersat in GEO,
what are you going to do about the time-lag if the aircraft unexpectedly
moves- say due to air turbulence?

Use intermediate power sats in much lower orbits. This also keeps the
aperture of the transmitter (IR, not microwave) down to a reasonable
size.

Total area stays the same, doesn't it? Ten intermediates would
each be about 1/10th the area, that sort of thing?

--
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/
http://www.livejournal.com/users/james_nicoll

wrote:
On 11 Oct 2005 19:51:19 -0700, "Robert Lynn"
wrote:

If we are to believe the pundits we are in the last few decades of
relatively cheap liquid fossil fuels, we are also being berated
interminably by the message that we are significantly effecting climate
with CO2 releases (personally I'm not 100 percent convinced that it is
entirely anthropogenic yet).

What is always elided is the fact that even if global warming is
occurring, and even if it is anthropogenic, it is a big leap from that
to proving that fossil fuel combustion is the mechanism. IMO
deforestation and other practices that alter the hydrological cycle
may well be more important.

Not to mention that even at $10k/lb, compared to the costs of serious runaway
climate change, in-orbit solutions to insolation variation are possible.