Request for info on the WS-125

Hello! First time poster here, sorry for the crudeness. I saw a documentary on experimental cold war aircraft the other day and they had a segment on the Convair WS-125 nuclear-powered bomber. Basically it was a long-range bomber that could loiter for extended periods of time due to the nuclear reactor it carried onboard.

The documentary had some CG sequences but i would like to know if this is what the plane really looked like. Anyone with rough schematics is welcome to post, and i am also looking for info on the engine, I.E. how it was powered by the reactor. For some reason the plane intrigued me, and i would just like to get more info on it.

Thank You!

I think the craft you are talking about never existed. Basically the only images you are going to get are CG.

As far as I know no nuclear powered aircraft have ever been made.

No plane with the designation WS-125 ever flew, as far as I can tell. And gfad is entirely correct in saying that no nuclear-powered aircraft have ever flew. However, in the U.S. Air Force flew an experimental plane called the NB-36H "Crusader" during the mid 1950's.

Modified from Convair's standard B-36H airframe, the Crusader was powered by the B-36's conventional mix of propellers and jet engines; however, it did include a working nuclear reactor it its aft bomb bay. This reactor was used to test the feasibility of powering bombers with a nuclear reactor, as well as proof-of-concept tests on sealing the crew compartment against radiation. As such the cabin was heavily modified with a 12 ton lead/rubber radiation shield, as well as 10-12-inch-thick leaded glass windows.

Although the Crusader was successful as a testbed aircraft, the concept of a nuclear-powered bomber was too impractical to even consider contracting Convair for a production aircraft. This is probably just as well, in my opinion...

There have been occassional (and often conflicting) reports that the Soviet Union experimented with the idea of a nuclear-powered bomber at about the same time. However, as far as I know, no solid evidence has ever been provided to back up these claims.

The reactor didn't power the plane, but it was indeed operational. It had 47 test flights and 215 hours of flight time.

Under WS-125 Convair and Lockheed proposed a lot of different studies. While Lockheed was developing new planes, Convair was working on modifications of types B-58 and XB-70. A lot of pictures also with my Convair WS-125 drawing you can find here:

www.hitechweb.szm.sk...

And requested "solid soviet evidence":

The Convair WS-125 I believe was a prototype bomber with a nuclear reactor in it, I don't know what the nuclear reactor did, but I don't think it powered it's engines. The WS-125 used the hull of the B-36 Peacemaker(Possibly the largest bomber ever made).

I do believe the WS-125 flew and conducted tests, but never made it into production or past the prototype stage.

Shattered OUT...

Originally posted by ShatteredSkies
I do believe the WS-125 flew and conducted tests, but never made it into production or past the prototype stage.

Shattered OUT...

Sorry ShatteredSkies,

WS-125 Never flew. The aircraft that flew was the XB-36H, which had a test reactor on board that didn't power anything. They were experimenting with radiation shealding and testing flight safty of the reactor.

The test program started by testing shielding problems. A B-36 was converted for this purpose. This aircraft was referred to as the Nuclear Test Aircraft (NTA). The NTA began its life as a Convair B-36H bomber, but after conversion it was redesignated as an NB-36H. It was modified to carry a small air cooled reactor in the aft bomb bay and to provide shielding for the crew. The NTA incorporated shielding around the reactor itself and a totally new nose section which housed a twelve ton lead and rubber shielded compartment for the crew. There were also water jackets in the fuselage and behind the crew compartment to absorb radiation. The reactor was made critical in flight on several occasions and the aircraft was used for many radiation and shielding experiments.

www.megazone.org...

The project never made it beyond testing sheilding solutions!

Tim

From my (sketchy) knowledge of this particular subject, I remember seeing about this before. If I remember correctly the soviets made one, but not with enough shielding so the crews got irradiated. I don't think a fission powered plane will ever really fly, due to the obvious instability issues, and the weight of the system.

Summary for all:

1. Nuclear reactor NEVER powered any plane or any engine in the plane.

2. There were only two planes, that had activated nuclear reactor onboard - Convair NB-36H and Tupolev Tu-95LAL (pictures in my previous post). Reactors WERE NOT CONNECTED to the propulsion system, they were used only for testing of radiation shields.

3. There were a lot of WS125 proposals, but no bomber was build. I dont want to say "nothing solid" because there was some particular work on materials, shielding, engines, etc., but there wasnt any WS125 plane really manufactured. Weapon system WS125 was in 1958 replaced by CAMAL program (Convair NX2 and Lockheed GL-232).

The Russians made and flew one 40+ times. They just disregarded shielding, which eventually killed all but 3 of the flight crew. It had 2 turbo prop engines and 2 direct cycle nuclear engines.

Starts around the 40 minute mark.

youtu.be...

originally posted by: texaspro
The Russians made and flew one 40+ times. They just disregarded shielding, which eventually killed all but 3 of the flight crew. It had 2 turbo prop engines and 2 direct cycle nuclear engines.

Starts around the 40 minute mark.

youtu.be...

Do you have any other sources corroborating these claims?

There was a project that tested reactor shielding: Тu-95LAL. The reactor was not powering anything.

It's successor Тu-119 was supposed to have two engines powered by the reactor. But it was never built afaik.

a reply to: moebius

As far as I've ever seen, both aircraft had the reactor powered up, but no flights were ever performed with it powering anything. Running, yes, powering the engines, no.

originally posted by: matej
Under WS-125 Convair and Lockheed proposed a lot of different studies. While Lockheed was developing new planes, Convair was working on modifications of types B-58 and XB-70. A lot of pictures also with my Convair WS-125 drawing you can find here:

www.hitechweb.szm.sk...

And requested "solid soviet evidence":

There's a link containing artist's renderings and company drawings of the Lockheed WS-125 proposal if you're curious:
www.secretprojects.co.uk...

Was this project the one being researched/tested at a site (now abandoned) in Tenn?
I remember seeing a documentary about that