4 ms·

You know what would be cool? Aircraft super-carrier sized aircaft that uses battery power for takeoff/landing and a few of these reactors for nuclear powered pr

You know what would be cool? Aircraft super-carrier sized aircaft that uses battery power for takeoff/landing and a few of these reactors for nuclear powered propulsion. Ideallt takeoff/landing from coastal areas away from populated areas but even in case if failure, using multiple small reactors could mean less fallout. Imagine mach-6+ flights carrying 20K passengers at a time going NYC --> South Asia within an hour or two. Entire town populations commuting to a diffefent continent every day!

ncmncm 6y ago
What could possibly go wrong? But I am forced to admit that airborne aircraft carriers like in Sky Captain would be very cool. (I guess some people like to call those "helicarriers", but I can't get past the busted etymology.)
- badrabbit 6y ago
  I mean the risks are obvious, what I meant was small reactors,reactor operated only over low population are at 70k feet and short flight time could maybe reduce the risk enough to make it a practical idea? Instead of thousands of intercontinental flights, small number of arterial flights like this and fast/electric ground transport could help carbon emissions greatly.
  - perl4ever 6y ago
    My general impression of the original nuclear powered aircraft project in the US is that it wasn't necessarily infeasible to make a flying reactor, but shielding for anyone on board would be too heavy, and ultimately there was no real mission that required it so it was cancelled.
    - ncmncm 6y ago
      If you suspend the reactor from a cable 1000 feet below the aircraft, it doesn't need shielding. That might be more practical for an aircraft above Venus. It could keep the air in a balloon warm. A helicopter or balloon with an unshielded nuke reactor hanging below it, that never needs to land, seems pretty cool.
- zipwitch 6y ago
  Airborne aircraft carriers were pretty cool when they were operating 90 years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akron-class_airship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akron-class_airship
brandmeyer 6y ago
I can imagine the embarkation/disembarkation time for something that big :) Its a known problem for flying wing passenger aircraft. More seriously, if you want to learn more about the history of aircraft nuclear propulsion research, the HTRE reactivity excursion report contains quite a bit of design overview in it as background for the rest of the report. https://www.osti.gov/biblio/4643464/ https://www.osti.gov/biblio/4643464/
- LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago
  Why don't you think in terms of [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roll-on/roll-off https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roll-on/roll-off ferry? Make it more cylindrical, and have hyperloops disgorge their metro cars into them like bullets into the magazine of a revolver. Have a dozen of such magazines behind each other, or so. Lift off, travel, arrive, disgorge into local Teslatronic Transglobal Transportation Trix branch network. Next best thing to 'beaming'. Use the electric power of the [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_lightbulb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_lightbulb for propulsion like this: [2] https://www.skygauge.co/ https://www.skygauge.co/
numpad0 6y ago
Nah those things belong in high orbit. IMO anyways
LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago
Weapons of mass migration... And why bother with batteries when there are [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_lightbulb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_lightbulb s?

ncmncm 6y ago

What could possibly go wrong? But I am forced to admit that airborne aircraft carriers like in Sky Captain would be very cool. (I guess some people like to call those "helicarriers", but I can't get past the busted etymology.)

badrabbit 6y ago
I mean the risks are obvious, what I meant was small reactors,reactor operated only over low population are at 70k feet and short flight time could maybe reduce the risk enough to make it a practical idea? Instead of thousands of intercontinental flights, small number of arterial flights like this and fast/electric ground transport could help carbon emissions greatly.
- perl4ever 6y ago
  My general impression of the original nuclear powered aircraft project in the US is that it wasn't necessarily infeasible to make a flying reactor, but shielding for anyone on board would be too heavy, and ultimately there was no real mission that required it so it was cancelled.
  - ncmncm 6y ago
    If you suspend the reactor from a cable 1000 feet below the aircraft, it doesn't need shielding. That might be more practical for an aircraft above Venus. It could keep the air in a balloon warm. A helicopter or balloon with an unshielded nuke reactor hanging below it, that never needs to land, seems pretty cool.
zipwitch 6y ago
Airborne aircraft carriers were pretty cool when they were operating 90 years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akron-class_airship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akron-class_airship

brandmeyer 6y ago

I can imagine the embarkation/disembarkation time for something that big :) Its a known problem for flying wing passenger aircraft. More seriously, if you want to learn more about the history of aircraft nuclear propulsion research, the HTRE reactivity excursion report contains quite a bit of design overview in it as background for the rest of the report. https://www.osti.gov/biblio/4643464/ https://www.osti.gov/biblio/4643464/

LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago
Why don't you think in terms of [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roll-on/roll-off https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roll-on/roll-off ferry? Make it more cylindrical, and have hyperloops disgorge their metro cars into them like bullets into the magazine of a revolver. Have a dozen of such magazines behind each other, or so. Lift off, travel, arrive, disgorge into local Teslatronic Transglobal Transportation Trix branch network. Next best thing to 'beaming'. Use the electric power of the [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_lightbulb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_lightbulb for propulsion like this: [2] https://www.skygauge.co/ https://www.skygauge.co/

numpad0 6y ago

Nah those things belong in high orbit. IMO anyways

LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago

Weapons of mass migration... And why bother with batteries when there are [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_lightbulb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_lightbulb s?