On this day in 1955, at Carswell Air Force Base, Fort Worth, Texas, the single Convair NB-36H Nuclear Test Aircraft, serial number 51-5712, made its first flight. The NB-36 was built to test the shielding requirements of an airborne nuclear reactor and to determine the effects of radiation on aircraft systems. The reactor did not power the aircraft. The NB-36 made 47 flights with a total of 215 hours flight time. In the late 1940s engineers began working on an aircraft that could be powered by a nuclear reactor. The reactor would heat air to provide jet thrust, rather than burning fuel and air to do so. A 60-megawatt reactor was envisioned. Based on the test results, the entire project was canceled and the plane was scrapped at Fort Worth in 1958.
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