The footage I saw showed that test runs were not in a wind tunnel but out in the desert. They stored pressurized air in a huge oil pipe farm and then blew it through the ramjet after heating it in big vats with glowing ball bearings.
But yes, I'm sure the area behind the nozzle was radioactive for quite a while. Testing this monster in the air (which they would want to do many times I'm sure) would have been a big problem. I don't remember how much radioactive material was used but the reactor disc was around 6' in diameter and almost a foot deep. Or something like that. http://www.nv.doe.gov/news&pubs/publications/historyreports/news&views/pluto .htm Pictures at http://www.fas.org/nuke/space/c05other.htm Sander ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Weinshenker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2002 10:53 AM Subject: Re: [ERPS] ISAS paper > Sander Pool wrote: > > > > I assume everyone here saw the Discovery Wings show about the Pluto project. > > Attempts in the 50s (60s?) to build a nuclear ramjet powered cruise missile. > > I didn't see the show, but I heard of the project elsewhere... > reportedly the wind tunnel at Marquart Labs where the one > actual engine run took place was still radioactive decades > later... and in flight there would be no safe way to shut > the thing down once it was running (think decay heat...) so > it was inherently a single use vehicles: Test runs, as well as > aborted attacks, were to end by diving the beast into a deep place > in the ocean. (They'd never be able to get the environmental impact > papers for _that_ approved these days!) > > -dave w > _______________________________________________ > ERPS-list mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list > > _______________________________________________ ERPS-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list
