NUCLEAR POWERED AIRSHIPS A SKETCH
- There was a proposal by the navy to build a hypersonic nuclear powered airship in the mid-1950's.
- Airships had reached speeds of Mach 10 in the early 1960's.
- Nuclear power can be used to heat helium in the ballonets creating greater lift. Altitudes greater than 100K feet are possible using heated helium. The radiators of the SNAP reactors are ideal for this project.
- Nuclear powered hypersonic stealth airships armed with lasers can stand on station over an enemy countries missile silos and destroy them in boost phase.
- Airships can employ both optical and radar camouflage techniques to obscure them from the enemy.
I absolutely agree with you here on this. Everything about triangular UFOs having bright lights screams human technology. I don't buy Edgar Fouche's TR-3B version where they are using antigravity accelerators. It makes more sense they are advanced blimps like the ones seen in the Aereon Dynairship designs. The only question I have is do you have a link on the proposal to build a hypersonic airship?
ReplyDeleteI have an idea of what kind of propulsion would these triangular airships use - electroaerodynamics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e09lGgDM3PA&ab_channel=Electrofluidsystems. Those who have witnessed this craft reported hearing a faint humming sound which fits the electric/ion propulsion theory which makes no loud noise but a light buzzing sound. EAD produces 110 N/kW which is 55 times the thrust ratio of a jet engine (2 N/kW)! Add that to thermoelectric nuclear power and bam.
Sorry I have no link. I read about the proposal. I cannot remember where. I know that Kelly Johnson or Ben Rich wrote about a navy proposal to build a hypersonic plane to be lifted by a mile diameter balloon. I know there was a hypersonic proposal. The navy did use Zeppelins for ASW in the 1930's. They have experience with lighter than air vehicles. I don't think they use anything exotic for propulsion. My guess is they use the SNAP reactors to heat the helium filled ballonets and the peewee NTR's for propulsion above 100,000 feet. I think they operate between 20 and 50 miles. They never leave the darkside of the Earth. The lights camouflage the craft when they traverse the moon. This won't work when traversing the sun. So, they have to stay on the darkside of the Earth. Also the Phoenix lights are also most likely lighter than air vehicles.
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