Nuclear-Powered Aircraft

The potential for a nuclear-powered aircraft to provide global persistence and reach, measured in months while consuming no petroleum fuel, seems alluring and worthy of pursuit. However operating requirements for such an aircraft, in addition to established political hurdles after Three-Mile Island and Chernobyl accidents, will limit the scope of a nuclear-powered aircraft program, if not eliminate the idea completely. By analyzing the potential uses of nuclear-powered aircraft against the legal requirements, the USAF can narrow its limited research and development investments in manpower and materiel to those technologies with the greatest opportunity for employment. This paper assumes a future security environment requiring attributes such as global range, persistence combined with ever rising fuel costs due to fuel scarcity.