Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1951-02-25
Buck Rogers and the Sky

Ever since the end of the Second World War,
several American aviation and engineering COM
panies have been working on super secret prof.
ect called NEPA. The initials constitute one OF
the most significant authorizations OF our time
What they stand for is "Nuclear Energy for the
Propulsion of Aircraft" And what they imply, be-
yond that, is the promise-or the threat, depend
ing on how one looks at it-of nothing less than
an awe-inspiring revolution in the skies
few years ago, whenever NEPA was men,
toned in guarded language, many atomic
authorities would make point of declaring that
although nuclear energy probably could be
harnessed as motive or propulsve fuel for sub
marines or big ocean-going liners, or perhaps
even railroad engines, there was little or no
chance that it could ever be used to drive aircraft
"a Judgment based on the belief that planes were
too small and too light in themselves to carry the
heavy shielding needed as protection against the
intensely radioactive power Of the atom.
All along, however, there have been experts
with a quite opposite view Thus, as far back
as October, 1913, David M. Poole-speaking as
key NEPA worker and as representative OF the
Fairchild Aircraft Corporation, the prime con-
tractor in the project-fatly declared to the Bal
timore Society of Engineers: % That scientists
had developed shielding material light enough
for conventional aircraft; (2) that the theory of
the atom-driven plane had been SO per cent per-
fected and 60 that to translate the theory into
q reality "the sde-rule men" had only to draft
designs and build the engine.
And now, more than two years later, Mr..
Pooe's judgment-which may have been bit
premature when first made-haS been largely,
if not wholly, confirmed in Joint announcement
by the United States Air Force and the Atomic
Energy Commission. What the announcement
has revealed is the completion of the initial phase
of the project to produce an atom-drlven plane.
In other words, the theoretical work is finished,
and from this point on, with the General Electric
Company taking on the task, efforts are to be
concentrated on the actual construction of
nuclear aircraft engine. In all probability the
advance in that direction has been fastened by
the highly significant progress achieved in build
ing a similar engine for submarines.
OF course, for security reasons, no one in
authority is giving out anything but the broadest
kind of hints as to just when an atom-drlven
plane is likely to be produced The chances are
that atomic submarines-which may be an actu-
atty in the rather near future-wil be operating
considerably before it. But whatever the time
needed to build it-whether two, three, four or
more years-there appears to be no doubt that
1t is on the way Indeed, according to General
Vandenberg, Air Force Chief of Staff, it is already
much closer than most people realize-an obser-
walton that tends to make flesh-and-blood crea-
lures out of fantastic comic-strip characters like
Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon.
Certainly, Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon
would feel at home in something like an atomic
powered B-36 For such bomber-theoreticall
at least-would have a practically unlimited
range and speed far faster than sound. With
a pound of pure nucear fuel-Plutonium, or
Uranium 235-it would be able, according to some
expert calculations, to fly around the earth 30
times at $500 miles an hour. Although figures
OF this sort are rough estimates and hence prob
ably In error on the excessive side, they are by
no means too wide of the mark to give fairly