ATOM-POWERED BOMBER

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28758, 2 December 1958, Page 15

ATOM-POWERED BOMBER

“Claim For Soviet Has Some Truth” (N.Z. Press Asspciation—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) NEW YORK, November 30. Some United States Defence Department officials said today that* there appeared to be some truth in an aviation magazine article claiming the Soviet Union was test-flying a nuclear-powered bomber, the United Press International said. But they said they would have to study the article more thoroughly before they could say it was correct. The chairman of the Senate Military Appropriations Sub-committee, Mr Denis Chavez (Democrat, New Mexico), promptly said that President Eisenhower could have ail the money he wanted to build a nuclear-powered aircraft. The magazine, “Aviation Week,” said the Soviet Union not only had beaten the United States into the air with atomic power but had gained a four-year lead with its huge experimental bomber.

While the aircraft was still in early test stages, the magazine said, it could be developed into a fully-operational military plane able to fire ballistic missiles at American cities within two years. It said the aircraft was definitely a military prototype and not a "flying test bed” such as the once-planned American nuc-lear-powered B-36 would have been. In a leading article accompanying the story, the “Aviation Week’s" editor, Mr Robert Holtz, said Russia could be expected to exploit the plane in "political warfare” long before it is a fullyfledged combat aircraft.

The United States could have had a nuclear-powered plane by now if it were not for “penny pinching and lack of vision,” the article sajd. “Anonymous scientists,” headed by Dr. James R. Killian, the President’s chief scientific adviser, were responsible for the United States lag, the editor said. The scientists had vetoed a militaryindustry proposal earlier this year to increase atomic aircraft development. 195 Feet Long The huge aircraft, with a fuselage about 195 feet long and a wingspan of 78 feet, was said to have been completed about six months ago and to have been flying in the Moscow area for at least two months, said the report. The delta-wing aeroplane, in its initial flight testing, was powered by a combination of nuclear and conventional turbo-jet engines. “Two direct air cycle nuclear power plants are housed in 36-foot-long nacelles slung on short pylons about midway out of each wine,” the magazine said. . “These nuclear power plants, with six-foot diameter air-intakes and using small, but high-power reactors to replace the combustion chambers in the turbo-jet cycle, produce about 70.0001 b thrust each.

"They are supplemented by two conventional turbo-jets installed in wing-tip pods fitted with short after-burners to provide about 35,0001 b thrust each for take-oIT performance.” "Aviation Week" said that although It might require another 18 months to two years before the Soviet bomber had full operational capability, there was a dis-

tinct possibility that a non-stop noh-refuelled global flight might be attempted In the near future. “The Soviet aircraft is prototype of a design to perform a military mission as a continuous airborne alert warning system and missile launching platform . . the magazine said. . "Tn its present configuration with both nuclear and conventional turbo-jets, the Soviet aircraft has a performance capability in the high subsonic and low supersonic speed ranges with its range limited only by engine component life and crew endurance." it said.