The year is 1961. USA needs an edge agaist the soviets. They turned to military supplier Convair, who at the time was looking into various applications of nuclear power in aircraft for the US navy.

GE's report discusses a nuclear ramjet-powered cruise missile in some detail, but did not directly explore the concept. (Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Laboratory took the nuclear ramjet as far as a ...

Here’s What You Need to Remember: At a time when environmental consciousness was rising the thought of routinely running nuclear ramjets and rockets undersea and overhead already gave pause.