Holy Cow: The Flying Crowbar: The Insane Doomsday Weapon America Almost Built

[Don Plumley]

From Jalopnik:

At its core, Project Pluto was just a cruise missile. Well, not "just" a cruise missile. It was a cruise missile designed around a nuclear ramjet engine, and the acronym for it should give another big clue about the pants-filling nature of it: SLAM, for Supersonic Low Altitude Missile. That means that this giant, nuclear-powered beast would be screaming around at oh, treetop level or so.

The nuclear ramjet engine at the heart of Project Pluto is key to what made this weapon so horrific. A ramjet is a very simple engine design, with essentially no moving parts. Once the missile was launched with conventional rocket boosters, the air velocity going into the ramjet's intake would be fast enough to let the engine function, and an essentially unshielded nuclear reactor would heat the air as it entered, where it would expand and be expelled out of the engine's nozzle, providing both lots of thrust and plenty of radioactive material.

Thanks to the nuclear reactor, the missile could stay aloft almost indefinitely. That means after flying across the Earth to its targets in the Soviet Union, where it would dump its payload of 16+ hydrogen bombs, the missile itself was still good to keep flying. Which allowed for all kinds of extra terror-fun.

This crazy bastard had so many ways to kill you, it was like a death buffet: should I die in the nuclear blasts of the bombs themselves, or just let the shockwave of the overpassing missile kill me? Maybe I'll just wait for the radiation sickness as this thing circles endlessly overhead, like a colossal demonic robot vulture. It's so hard to choose!

[MT930]

lovely !

It's pretty cool in a twisted way.

I'm guessing they never tested it.

[Rick V]

[onewhippedpuppy]

That is the sort of bad ass creation that could only have come from the cold war.

[kach22i]

I have a collection of old architectural publications, one is for a design competition featuring earth sheltered grade schools with fall out shelters. Maybe I'll get around to scanning them one day.

[Eric Hahl]

[Steve Carlton]

There's already one out there, but it will get destroyed in the future...

[cashflyer]

How does a nuclear reactor produce thrust?

[rattlsnak]

Originally Posted by cashflyer

How does a nuclear reactor produce thrust?

^^ This is why you are not a rocket scientist!

[M.D. Holloway]

the very hot air from the reaction is expelled out the back...the pressure differnce is what provides the thrust...

" A ramjet is a very simple engine design, with essentially no moving parts. Once the missile was launched with conventional rocket boosters, the air velocity going into the ramjet's intake would be fast enough to let the engine function, and an essentially unshielded nuclear reactor would heat the air as it entered, where it would expand and be expelled out of the engine's nozzle, providing both lots of thrust"

[M.D. Holloway]

The reactor that powered the missile was one of the smallest, lightest ever built — partially achieved by eliminating almost anything that had to do with such candy-assed ideas as "safety." The reactor's operating temperatures were so high (2500° F) that most alloys would melt, forcing the use of components like fuel rods to be made of ceramic, developed by a little porcelain company named Coors. Coors's ceramic-lined brewing vats eventually spawned a profitable sideline you may have heard of.

oh my!

[M.D. Holloway]

'Lots of exotic materials were needed for Pluto's demanding parameters, and some came from unexpected routes. To coat and protect electric motor armatures, exhaust manifold paint was used, which the developers ordered from an ad in Hot Rod magazine. Which is really kind of perfect.'

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by cashflyer

How does a nuclear reactor produce thrust?

It doesn't. At least not to the point where it's efficient enough to perform at the desired levels.

I serial doubt they could create a functioning nuke ram jet to take that thing supersonic and keep it there now, much less back then.
Even if they could, keeping it stable would be durn near impossible.

My dad made a career out of designing rockets and rocket parts and I remember we discussed this type of concept when I was a kid.
He said it was nothing more than a way to burn off excess budget.

[SteamWolf]

Ramjets and Scramjets were a theory back then but there were no functioning examples until the early 90's I think. Let alone nuclear versions. I doubt they could have made one back then. Today, it seems much more possible.
A nuclear version sounds fanciful but there may be enough moisture in the atmosphere to provide the thermal expansion from intense heat required to sustain thrust. It'd be an incredibly unstable system though, to be able to moderate reaction enough to not melt at lower speeds, but to still generate enough heat to provide thermal expansion of the working medium at Mach 3+.

[Steve Carlton]

I don't care. I want one.

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

I don't care. I want one.

I'm holding out for the flying torque wrench

[trekkor]

What would the world be like if instead of spending insane amounts of money and resources developing killing machines, peaceful paths were taken?


I find it pathetic that nearly all modern technology is military hand-me-downs...



KT

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

I don't care. I want one.

+1

THAT'S IMPRESSIVE.... JUST IMAGINE that thing circling over the former USSR/CHINA/IRAN/ etc etc ... IN-DEFIANTLY.

.... "this is the end and there's nothing you can do about it" ....

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by trekkor

What would the world be like if instead of spending insane amounts of money and resources developing killing machines, peaceful paths were taken?


I find it pathetic that nearly all modern technology is military hand-me-downs...



KT

All true but can you imagine the NOISE that thing would make?

[sammyg2]

Iffn I recall correct-like wasn't the german V-1 some sort of crude ram jet ?

I did a search and found this info on this particular project pluto monstrocity:

On May 14, 1961, the world's first nuclear ramjet engine, "Tory-IIA," mounted on a railroad car, roared to life for a few seconds. Three years later, "Tory-IIC" was run for five minutes at full power

It doesn't say what happened after 5 minutes (total melt-down?) or what the actual power output was.
It was done in Nevada, I doubt my father was involved but he prolly knows about it. At that time he was working on rocket motors and nozzles fer the minuteman-1 and 2 in Utah (solid propellant).
think I'll drop him a line and inquire.

But color me impressed that they had the gonads to dance with the devil and achieve at least partial success with a nuke ramjet. Chuck Norris wouldn't even get near that one.