page_title: Nuclear propulsion
section_title: Aircraft and missiles
hierarchical_section_title: Nuclear propulsion / Aircraft and missiles
caption_attribution_description: English: Heat Transfer Reactor Experiment-3. A nuclear powered jet engine developed as part of the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion program.
context_page_description: Nuclear propulsion includes a wide variety of propulsion methods that use some form of nuclear reaction as their primary power source. The idea of using nuclear material for propulsion dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. In 1903 it was hypothesized that radioactive material, radium, might be a suitable fuel for engines to propel cars and boats. H. G. Wells picked up this idea in his 1914 fiction work The World Set Free.
context_section_description: Research into nuclear-powered aircraft was pursued during the Cold War by the United States and the Soviet Union as they would presumably allow a country to keep nuclear bombers in the air for extremely long periods of time, a useful tactic for nuclear deterrence. Neither country created any operational nuclear aircraft. One design problem, never adequately solved, was the need for heavy shielding to protect the crew from radiation sickness. Since the advent of ICBMs in the 1960s the tactical advantage of such aircraft was greatly diminished and respective projects were cancelled. Because the technology was inherently dangerous it was not considered in non-military contexts. Nuclear-powered missiles were also researched and discounted during the same period.
  Aircraft
  Convair X-6
  Myasishchev M-50 - Aviation Week hoax
  Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion - General Electric's project to build a nuclear-powered bomber
  Tupolev Tu-95LAL
  Missiles
  Project Pluto - which developed the SLAM missile, that used a nuclear-powered air ramjet for propulsion
  Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile announced by Vladimir Putin in 2018.
caption: A picture of an Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion system, known as HTRE-3 (Heat Transfer Reactor Experiment no. 3). The central EBR-1 based reactor took the place of chemical fuel combustion to heat the air. The reactor rapidly raised the temperature via an air heat exchanger and powered the dual J47 engines in a number of ground tests.[5]
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