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[BazaJT]

An interesting series on Discovery History channel titled Planes That Never Flew.Todays programme was about the idea to develop a nuclear bomber,that is a bomber with a nuclear propulsion unit not just an aircraft to carry anuclear weapon.One of the first ideas on protecting the aircrew from the radiation aspect was to use older aircrew who were past the age of having kids,so any effects on them wouldn't be passed on!!A B36 did actually fly numerous times with a nuclear reactor in the rear bomb bay to test things like crew protection etc.but not used as the propulsion unit.This was accompanied on all flights by another aircraft with Marines aboard whose was to parachute out add contain the area should the B36 have crashed.Luckily for them they never needed to do this!

[Lizzie_Zoom]

That is an interesting fact, that I am sure is not widely known about.

Can you imagine the reaction of many countries to a nuclear driven aircraft flying over their territory, that they may have declared to be a "nuclear free zone"?!

Thank goodness it never went ahead

..........and to think the Yanks banned Concorde from flying over most of it's States due to the noise factor!!!   One rule for some, and another rule for themselves comes to mind!

[Keith ABS]

  I seen to remember that an Asian 747 cargo went down after take off from Stanstead. A massive area was cordened off due to some radioactive componants of the plane being scattered over a large area.
keith B

[Varche]

That reminds me of Palomares in Spain only 200miles from where I live.

"As a means of maintaining first-strike capability during the Cold War, U.S. bombers laden with nuclear weapons circled the earth ceaselessly for decades. In a military operation of this magnitude, it was inevitable that accidents would occur. The Pentagon admits to more than three-dozen accidents in which bombers either crashed or caught fire on the runway, resulting in nuclear contamination from a damaged or destroyed bomb and/or the loss of a nuclear weapon. One of the only "Broken Arrows" to receive widespread publicity occurred on January 17, 1966, when a B-52 bomber crashed into a KC-135 jet tanker over Spain."

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/h-bomb-lost-in-spain