Convair NB-36H Crusader

Description

Product

Convair NB-36H Crusader

Description

In early 1951, the US military called on Convair and General Electric to create an aircraft that would have both conventional engines (for take off and landing) and a nuclear power plant for long stays in the air. General Electric proposed an open-type power plant in which air from the compressor was transferred directly to the nuclear reactor and then returned preheated to the engine turbine. The advantage of this concept was its relative economy and fast development time, but its glaring disadvantage was the exhausting of radioactive particles into the air. Leading physicists strongly opposed such a development, but the military’s interest in such an aircraft outweighed their arguments. Convair proposed the X-6 design concept, which would be based on the existing B-58 Hustler, and assured the military that a prototype could be built as early as 1954.