All I can say is…Where DOES he get those wonderful toys???

What a wonderful way to start a Monday! Mike, you’re a breath of fresh air on a stressful morning! Thank you, sir!

Mike, that is a fantastic video. I noticed that Convair was making all of the concept planes. Their design team seems to ride that fine edge between genius and insanity. I think the NX-2 is one of the most esthetically pleasing designs I have seen. Now I have to buy the kit of it by Fantastic Plastic. Ah, post WW2 America. We really believed we could do anything…and we have 6 flags on the moon and nuclear powered airplane designs to prove it….NOW WHERE’S MY JETPACK?

I had a physics professor in college that worked on the NB-36H. For the life of me I can’t remember his name, but he was a proud Texan that liked to remind us of every significant event in Texas history over the course of the semester. 😐

Never less than interesting and often fascinating, Mike takes a subject like this and brings it to life - having those manufacturer's models (the dream of many a schoolboy) doesn't hurt either!

Pretty scary to imagine all those radioactive exhaust fumes! Interesting and what wonderful models. Thanks as always Mike.

It is excellent to start my week with a new and amazing video from you, Mike! Greetings from Brazil!

Hello Mike. Great video and models! I'm the person who showed you the photos of my house full models and toys at the LAX airline collector's show . Keep these great videos going!

Very impressive factory models. Seen photos of these in books but never "live". Nice.

Great episode, Mike. Beautiful Company / industry models. I remember a few concept models that you could buy (can't remember the company) that were proposed "nifty fifties" aircraft design.

The WS110 program that led to the XB-70 was actually a stop-gap plan that was only expected to be in service for 10 years while the nuclear bomber program was allowed to work though the issues of getting a practical nuclear weapon.

Great video to start the week

Germany in WW2 made a concept for a 6x steam turbine powered long range bomber, they wanted to install a miniaturized nuclear reactor in a Messerschmitt Gigant 321 transport plane for testing

A very interesting video. Almost glowing. Great work by your team.

A different but very welcome format of video! Loved that we now saw built models vs the usual (fantastic) box cover art...and what a collection! Nice putting a face to the narration for us that haven't been to one of your presentations. I had heard of some (dirty exhaust) super/hypersonic nuclear fueled cruise missiles that would loiter above targets using the damage from their shockwave and their radioactive exhausts as a weapon, so I'm guessing it must have been something of a related development to the powerplant proposed in the NX-2? So many awesome developments and I have to say I like the look of the cockpit of the NB-36H more than the regular Peacemaker...though I'm happy that live nuclear reactors where never an airborne thing...I am a bit saddened though that the power of the atom seems to have such a bad PR and that it could be a legitimate clean fuel source (or at least a good interim measure while newer forms of energy are matured)but fear from a potential accident is such a political hot potato.

Really great video about an often overlooked aspect of aviation history

An outstanding presentation of an often-overlooked aspect of aircraft and powerplant development. Thanks, Mike !

Way Cool as always and thought provoking as well. Thanks!

Outstanding conversation

Outstanding, as usual!!!

Thanks Mike for another great one on a subject I had heard of, but knew nothing about.

Great informative video Mike, And, those factory models are incredible and no doubt very valuable.

Hey Mike, I thought you had rejected the inter office memo stating "No model box art". When I saw this episode on Nuclear-Powered aircraft, I thought for sure you would mention the fabulous Hawk kit of the BETA-I atomic powered XAB-1. In the instruction sheet they explain in detail the operation of a Direct Cycle Nuclear Engine. It is one of my favorite kits of my collection. This episode needs model box art. Let me know if you need pictures of the kit. All the best ! Will

Amazing video Mike, really well done Sir!

Your videos are only getting better and better, this was a great one. 🎉

Mike, brilliant, really enjoyed this video. Full of interesting information.

Thanks, Mike!

I recall reading about one of these devices being dubbed "The Flying Crowbar" due to a possible use that would be very simple and very deadly. It would be part of the nuclear strike force, but after delivering its payload, it would drop whatever shielding it had around its core and continue to fly around at low altitude over the enemy's country spreading its radioactive exhaust over farm fields, population centers, transportation hubs; generally wherever people or the industries they depended upon were located. The strategic value of contaminating food supplies and exposing a few million civilians to varying degrees of radiation sickness is obvious.

Terrific episode!

Amazing, thanks

Excellent video!

Great video , thanks

Awesome stuff, Mike. And its good to have a face to go with that smooth voice of yours.

Another great episode!

Fantastic collection of models. I love that DC-10. Thank you for a great video.

Another fantastic presentation. Convair was such an impressive company…

Very informative. Thanks

Very Well done indeed 👏🏼

HI Mike great episode! I live in Idaho near the Idaho National Laboratory, and they have two of the test reactors built for aircraft use on display at the EBR-1 (Experimental Breeder Reactor) museum complex on INL grounds! They are impressive to see! Thanks for this video! Take care and all the best!

Jeez, those are some nice and of course rare U.S. military atomic powered aircraft models. They appear to be one of a kind (made of mostly wood?). Interesting history of these nuclear airplanes (especially that DC-10) and thanks for sharing!

Hi Mike. I was just at Pima Air and Space Museum Friday, guiding some UK friends. I stopped by the nose of the B-36J Peacemaker, ''City of Ft Worth'' -- like the example at frame [4:04]. That is one Big Dog!

It was fun meeting Mike at the Airliner memorabilia swap meeting this weekend. I recently picked up a UK publication “Secret Cold War Designs 2 US Supersonic Bomber Projects” written by Scott Lowther who also does a lot of masters for limited run resin aircraft kits. Some chapters cover multiple nuclear powered bomber projects. Very nice line drawings and tech data. One scary detail I wasn’t aware of is that the planes needed crew shielding for the canopies in addition to the shielding behind the crew. Apparently the engines produce so much radiation that even what is scattered by the surrounding air back into the windshield is enough to be dangerous. Yikes!

Another great & interesting presentation! Those models are so cool, & very rare, I imagine, & evoke the "futuristic", from the '50's & early '60's perspective. My Dad was a Professor of Mechanical Engineering, & I remember seeing a techical publication years ago from Sandia Labs (I think) that was in a stack of other scientific & technical publications of my Dads, & the publication featured an engineering R&D analysis of using liquid metal (sodium, I believe) as a heat transfer medium (fluid) in nuclear aircraft engines (for the NX-2, or other nuclear powered aircraft proposal). From what I recall, the aircraft engines operated using superheated ram air, heated with the (previously mentioned) liquid sodium metal used as a heat transfer fluid moving between the reactor & a heat exchanger, which would have been located in the air inlet (intake) ducts for the aircraft's engines. The superheated air (with added energy) would then exhaust through a nozzle & create thrust...or something like that. Quite a concept, indeed. I don't know if the program ever advanced to an engine ground test phase, but I suppose it would have been difficult to do, without irradiating the surroundings.

The obvious question here is this:- Nuclear reactors are used conventionally to produce heat which then heats water for turbines of many types, so how does a nuclear reactor produce thrust to propel an aircraft forward?

Several years ago, I saw two prototype nuclear engines on display at the Experimental Breeder Reactor-1 (EBR-1) site at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory outside of Idaho Falls. They are gargantuan machines which I presume were only test beds, as it is hard to see how they would ever fit in any airframe. From what I was told, the expected logistics for handling nuclear aircraft were daunting, to say the least. Ground service equipment would need to be operated remotely or be very heavily shielded. Aircraft storage was projected to require shielded buildings. I expect low level flight paths would need to be restricted to avoid irradiating people on the ground. Contamination in the event of a crash would be a significant problem and making the structure robust enough to withstand a flight accident would greatly increase weight. Having spent my career in the civilian nuclear power industry, I have a very hard time envisioning how any such machine could ever be made practical. I have a couple photos of the engines I can share with you, Mike, if you’re interested.

wow that MIRV is super cool. I'd love to take a more detailed look at that and the booklet

Those models, though. Wow!

nice video

the best youtube channel!

Fascinating Mr. Machat. I knew nothing about the US Nuclear aircraft projects. Still trying to figure out how the aircraft would be propelled. Hot air does not seem to me to be doable. Nuclear submarine basically run on electrical power created by steam, I believe. Never even considered the launch of ICBMs from air craft. And did not know that MIRV technology went back that far. Thanks again for a very informative history lesson.

Did the government have a code phrase for the loss of a nuclear powered aircraft like they did for lost nuclear weapons? A hypothetical frightening news headline might be "Nuclear Quiver loses multiple Broken Arrows."

Nuclear LongEZ! How cool!

Mike ¿what does this video and other videos you have made have in common? They are all fantastic and fun!

I enjoyed the video. Hay Mike how about a video on rocket engines you did the GE J79 among others.I was thinking of the XLR11 it was uses in the X-1 series an others like the X-15, there you have it. A idea for a future video maybe thanks !

Great video, there are several videos talking about the nuclear powered aircraft, and I guess the NB36 reactor still exists. I don't know if I had heard about the seaplane version before. And had never heard about the DC10 launch system. I don't know if you have talked about the cruise missle launching 747 before

Im not been nostalgic, those design are classic but not old or overpassed by entropy project drag or estrutural issues. Propelers aircraft from 50s or 60th were actualy, indeed, more eficient, more beautifull than modernity ones, my opinion. Comparing pound per pound and trhust, were even better than nowdays ones. Were great project. You showed what a 707 can lift within 54,s lbs. Imagine a remake of a profitable brand new Constalation, for instance, i say would be great to be a passanger in. I really apreciate you work, can feel passion about.

Great program Mike! Now let's see one on electrogravitic propulsion prototypes. I know you have the models somewhere! 👽

I hate to think of an Atomic Powered Bomber being shotdown over a populated area, or having a catastrophic crash! 😮

Subbed and liked. A++

In the thumbnail that should say NB-36H not NB-136H. 🙂. Great video and good to see some of these original company models have survived.

Another superb video. I'm very struck by the quality and style of the various "presentation models" you use. Might we have you make a video about these types of model?

Chad was sold the NX-2 model in Bonhams .

As a nuclear propulsion geek ( Beyond NERVA), in atmosphere nuclear propulsion was always doomed. Even if you have great reactor- centric shielding, atmospheric backscatter was a lethal problem for the crew - ignoring the impacts to everyone around. This includes aneutronic reactions of all types, due to gamma flux. The ANP showed how much of a toll gamma radiation shielding took on aircraft mass, and scaling went badly. I love seeing these old concepts, but... yeah. Better off dead, even from an astronuke like me.

That was the problem or one of them. The heat from the reactor was used to superheat the air. This resulted in a lot of radioactive emissions released. The closed cycle alternative was complex and not nearly as efficient as the direct cycle GE. All of this ignores the issues of the plane crashing and the release of radiation from the breakup of the reactor. Not to worry, the resesrch will be used to propel the manned mars missions. It would take six months to get to Mars on chemical rockets. It will take about six weeks with a nuclear based rocket. Six months is too long for deep space exposure to radiation. The crew would likely succumb to radiation sickness. We tend to ignore how much protection our atmosphere and magnetosphere protect us from hard solar radiation.

In 1982, as a young A1C, I read a large number of USAF published books and studies at the MHAFB library. One of them covered the nuclear powered aircraft project. I wonder about the new development of the micro-reactors that use much more safe reactor designs. Perhaps flying reactors could make a comeback.

It's a shame that the decals turned yellow on those old models! It would be nice if new ones could be created and the planes restored to original appearance.

What about the proposed Soviet "Atomic powered, Delta wing, 4 engine" bomber of the late 1950's . I remember building the model in the fall of 1960. I don't remember the name but I think one conventionally powered version was built and flown over Red Square. I think it's on display somewhere in Russia.

Great video. Would like to know how the jet engines worked.

The novel *PRELUDE TO SPACE* by Arthur C. Clarke includes a space plane powered by an atomic ramjet.

As a kid I got a plastic model kit of a nuclear bomber. I was always puzzled on how it would work.

I wish i could find out more about the ASTR reactor, I wonder where they buried it.?

In the flesh!

Mike, another homerun of a video. But flying around with Nuclear-Powered aircraft with1950's technology --- not a very good idea...... Mike, thanks for your time, work and posting.

On the title page it is written NB 136H. Is that a typo?

What would have been the propulsion produce by the reactor to move a plane ???

How did the reactor produce thrust?

I could never figure out how they were going to make it work, to convert nuclear energy into jet thrust...

still don't understand how the reactor is going to power the jets. Basically a reactor generates heat and boils water to make steam to turn a turbine or to turn a generator to make electricity . Don't see how this is going to get the plane off the ground

Ohhhhh My God......🤯 "No Bucks, No Buck Rodgers...." I am still trying to wrap my head arround a air cooled reactor?☢ I get how subs and ships make steam to run a turbine. But fuzzy how the plane gets thrust?🤔 So... rather than combust fuel and air. It is making super hot air for thrust?🛫

Reality check. (BTW, I’ve very pro nuclear) Weapons excluded, every existing application of nuclear power today is just heating the tea-kettle, making steam. Power conversion notwithstanding, ships and aircraft have different power demands. While the USS Nautilus used 13,400hp, the B-36 used 45,600hp to get airborne and maintain 230mph (albeit at 43,600ft). Now the reactor the NB-36 carried produced 1 Megawatt (4:50), that’s equivalent to 1,341hp, or about 37% of the hp from just one of the R4360 gasoline engines. Could the B-36 even taxi with such power? I'm guessing this had something to do with the decision to terminate the programs.