I was arguing with my cat and she brought up a good point.

Question

Is it possible to construct an aircraft with a nuclear engine?

Answer 1

Theoretically, yes, but not in practical terms.  A nuclear power plant is far too heavy to be carried aloft by any sort of workable aircraft.

During the cold war era--about the first decade of nuclear technology--there were some experiments with nuclear airplanes, but the key learning was that it was not practical.  Some of these experiences have been described in detail in previous answers.

Since the 1950s, we have become more realistic about the costs and risks involved with nuclear technology, and such ideas have been relegated to history.

My Doggie has lost interest in nuclear technology.  Nowadays she just wants to talk about celestial measurements and galactic geometry.

Answer 2

My cats also discuss this very frequently and they have agreed that it is possible to make a nuclear powered aircraft, but is not a practically viable proposition.

Answer 3

Your cat is right. It has been done before. Too many risks and the weight penalty was too great. They scrapped the idea. Your cat is privy to too many of our nations secrets and will have to be turned over to Homeland Security for "re-education".

Answer 4

Listen well to your cat.

They are wise and subtle.

But in this case, unless you want a moggie that glows in the dark, this is a bad idea.

Answer 5

HAHAHAHAHA

you were arguring with your cat

omg thats hecka funny

Answer 6

Actually, that's a good question, not a good point.

Answer 7

Nuclear engine creates electric power.  That would have to drive an electric motor.  Electric motors are not powerful enough to trust necessary to push a plane.

Also nuclear engines needs lots of water for cooling.

===

Hey what kind of cat is that?

Good Luck...

Answer 8

Sure....Will it fly?

Answer 9

Yes, a nuclear powered engine has been developed, but the aircraft never left the ground under nuclear power...

The WS-125 was a proposed super long range bomber, designed by the United States during the cold war. It was supposed to be a nuclear aircraft and was scheduled to be named as B-72.

Two General Electric turbofan engines were successfully powered to nearly full thrust using two shielded reactors. The two engines complete with reactor system are currently located at the EBR-1 facility south of INL.

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 included provisions for studying two different types of nuclear-powered jet engines, General Electric's Direct Air Cycle and Pratt & Whitney's Indirect Air Cycle. ANP also 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 program was canceled before the X-6 was completed, however.

The first modified B-36 was called the Nuclear Test Aircraft (NTA), a B-36H-20-CF (Serial Number 51-5712).  This plane was redesignated the XB-36H, then the NB-36H and was modified to carry a 3 megawatt, air-cooled nuclear reactor in its bomb bay. The reactor, named the Aircraft Shield Test Reactor (ASTR), was operational but did not power the plane. Water, acting as both moderator and coolant, was pumped through the reactor core and then to water-to-air heat exchangers to dissipate the heat to the atmosphere. Its sole purpose was to investigate the effect of radiation on aircraft systems.

In 1956, the USAF decided that the proposed WS-125 bomber was unfeasible as an operational strategic aircraft. Finally, after spending more than 1 billion dollars, the project was canceled on March 28, 1961.

Also, During the cold war the USSR had an experimental nuclear aircraft program.  On 12 August 1955 the Council of Ministers of the USSR issued a directive ordering bomber-related companies to join forces in researching nuclear aircraft.  In order to gain experience with the operational problems, they built a flying testbed as soon as possible, mounting a small reactor in a Tupolev Tu-95M to create the Tu-119.  Between May and August 1961, the Tu-119 completed 34 research flights. Most of these were made with the reactor shut down.  

The main purpose of the flight phase was examining the effectiveness of the radiation shielding which was one of the main concerns for the engineers. Massive amounts of liquid sodium, beryllium oxide, cadmium, paraffin wax as well as steel plates were used for protection. Some sources claim that the aircraft could stay in the air for around 48 hours, or for as long as the air crew could survive the radiation emitted by the reactor.The results were promising; radiation levels were low enough to consider continuing development.

Answer 10

It is theoretically possible. Electric motors can power and aircraft, in fact Boeing has test flown a Hydrogen fuel cell aircraft. However will all the shielding and equipment needed to operate a nuclear reactor the aircraft would be very heavy and would have very little carrying capacity. So it's just not practical. Besides, what happens if it crashes and the reactor is breached?