Convair X-6
The Convair X-6 was a proposed experimental aircraft which never left the drawing board. In May, 1946, the Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft (NEPA) project was started by the Air Force. Studies under this program were done until May, 1951 when NEPA was replaced by the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion (ANP) program. The ANP program contained plans for two B-36s to be modified by Convair under the MX-1589 project. One of the B-36s was to be used to study shielding requirements for an airborne reactor while the other was to be the X-6.
The first modified B-36 was called the Nuclear Test Aircraft (NTA), a B-36H-20-CF (Serial Number 51-5712) that had been damaged in a tornado at Carswell AFB on September 1, 1952. This plane was redesignated the XB-36H, then the NB-36H and was modified to carry a 1,000 kilowatt, air-cooled nuclear reactor. The reactor was operational but did not power the plane. Its sole purpose was to investigate the effect of radiation on aircraft systems. The NB-36H completed 47 test flights between 1955 and 1957. Based on the results of the NB-36H, the X-6 and the entire nuclear aircraft program was abandoned in 1957.
In the Sixties, the Soviet Union's Tupolev design bureau, conducted a similar experiment using a Tupolev Tu-119, which was a Tu-95 bomber modified to carry an operational reactor.
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Specifications (NB-36H)
General characteristics
- Crew: 5
- Length: 162 ft (49.38 m)
- Wing Span: 230 ft (70.1 m)
- Height: 46 ft 9 in (14.26 m)
- Wing Area: 4770 ft² (443.3 m²)
- Maximum takeoff: 360,000 lb (163,000 kg)
- Powerplant: Six Pratt & Whitney R-4360-53 3,800 hp (2,830 kW) each and four General Electric X40 turbojets
Performance
- Maximum Speed: 390 mph (628 km/h)
- Service Ceiling: 40,000 ft (12,200 m)
X-1 • X-2 • X-3 • X-4 • X-5 • X-6 • X-7 • X-8 • X-9 • X-10 • X-11 • X-12 • X-13 • X-14 • X-15 • X-16 • X-17 • X-18 • X-19 • X-20 • X-21 • X-22 • X-23 • X-24 • X-25 • X-26 • X-27 • X-28 • X-29 • X-30 • X-31 • X-32 • X-33 • X-34 • X-35 • X-36 • X-37 • X-38 • X-39 • X-40 • X-41 • X-42 • X-43 • X-44 • X-45 • X-46 • X-47 • X-48 • X-49 • X-50 • X-51
See also List of experimental aircraft
Related content
- Related development:
- Comparable aircraft: Tupolev Tu-119
- Variants:
See also
- List of experimental aircraft
- X-plane - list of all such planes
External links
- Dream of Atomic-Powered Flight original published on Aviation History, March 1995.
- Joe Baugher. B-36 Peacemaker. Section devoted to NB-36H
Categories
U.S. experimental aircraft 1950-1959