Along with dreams like the Submerged Nuclear Ramjet and the Model 49 AAFSS, Consolidated/Convair produced realities like the PBY Catalina, the B-36 and the Atlas missile. California dreaming, indeed.

Along with dreams like the Submerged Nuclear Ramjet and the Model 49 AAFSS, Consolidated/Convair produced realities like the PBY Catalina, the B-36 and the Atlas missile. California dreaming, indeed.

A nuclear ramjet still suffers from the same weakness of the traditional liquid-fueled version, namely the need to accelerate it up to around Mach 3 before the incoming air is compressed and pre ...

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.

In a 2013 brochure, the NNSS claimed that the principles behind the ramjet power used nuclear heat in combination with the force from the air in front of a vehicle to make it expand.

And one system that might prove decisive for France achieving such a herculean task is the Air-Sol Moyenne Portée Amélioré Rénové (ASMPA-R) ramjet-powered air-launched nuclear cruise missile.

In addition to gamma and neutron radiation from the unshielded reactor, Pluto's nuclear ramjet would spew fission fragments out in its exhaust as it flew by.

Theodore Merkle, the director of Project Pluto, identified these in a 1959 report titled, “The Nuclear Ramjet Propulsion System.” The first challenge was the size and durability of the reactor. Most ...

And Russia's mention of a liquid-propulsion system also does match with the Project Pluto ramjet, which didn't use liquid nuclear fuel. The village of Nyonoksa, pictured in October 2018.