Experimental Nuclear Aircraft Engines | museum, place with historical importance, atomic power engineering

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 museum, place with historical importance, aircraft, atomic power engineering
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Part of a program to develop a continuously flying nuclear powered platform in the days of the cold war, these two large and unique experimental nuclear aircraft engines, the first of which is approximately 3,000 tons weight, were consigned to this location by the Smithsonian Institute.
They would have otherwise been scrapped or buried.
The program was considered too expensive and provocative, and was abandoned in March 1961.
According to the museum display graphics the proposed aircraft had the approximate profile of a SST, but was several city blocks long.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Nuclear_Propulsion
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   43°30'42"N   113°0'18"W

Comments

  • These two engines actually belong to the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum, but are waaaay too big to be transported to Washington DC. They're quite impressive.
  • type "convair X6" on wikipédia for they story..
This article was last modified 12 years ago