Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion, or the Billion-Dollar Debacle

From 1945 to 1961, the United States spent over a billion dollars attempting to develop an airplane powered by a nuclear reactor. Such an aircraft seemingly offered nearly limitless performance capabilities, especially in terms of range, but numerous technical problems existed from the outset. The plane would have required an overly hefty radiation shield, scientific knowledge of the involved materials was insufficient, and any plane crash would create a legitimate nuclear disaster. This article examines the nuclear plane project and what it reveals about the application (or lack thereof) of scientific knowledge by policymakers charged with developing nuclear technologies. Even though scientists and engineers were clear about the attendant technical issues, policymakers focused on the potentiality of any nuclear airplane to the detriment of the project’s development and its ultimate demise.