An airship with a nuclear engine, carrying one and a half to two thousand passengers. Or up to 200 tons of cargo. With unlimited flight range. An ordinary nuclear airship of the sixties.
The idea to install a nuclear power plant on a zeppelin arose, apparently, simultaneously with the introduction of atomic energy in the fleet. The very gigantic dimensions of the last Hindenburg-class airships that flew in the 1930s - comparable to ocean liners - led to the idea that a bulky and massive nuclear reactor, the engine itself, a heavy biological defense would perfectly fit on such a giant, like this done on ships. The reactor compartment can be located far aft, a couple of hundred meters from the passenger cabins; mass does not play such a critical role as in airplanes, since lift is provided by the aerostatic principle; overall, the idea looked feasible. One of the first works on this topic was the publication of J. Kirchner "Zeppelin in the Atomic Age", 1956.
For example, here is how the atomic airship was presented in a popular science American magazine of the fifties:
* Why not use a peaceful atom for an airship? * Mechanix Illustrated magazine, 1956.
In this drawing, artist (and author) Frank Tinsley depicted a nuclear-powered airship twice the size of the Hindenburg while landing at a seaport. Let's pay attention to floats-balloonnets for landing on water and weather radar in the bow. An interesting detail was envisaged in the project: "a circular gallery will be arranged in the reactor hall, while walking along which passengers will observe the operation of the nuclear installation with interest from a safe distance."
The very idea of the "revival" of airships that left the scene in the 1930s is not new and periodically pops up among aircraft designers. Indeed, they have certain advantages over airplanes. The main one is the "practically free" lift. Like any balloon, an airship is an apparatus lighter than air, so the power of the power plant is used only to create propulsive thrust. The benefits in this sense are obvious.
Soon, more detailed engineering studies of the atomic airship began, in the sense of clarifying its main parameters. They were conducted in the USA, USSR, and Europe (I managed to find a mention of the Austrian project Veress).
As an example, let us give a good general description of an airship with a nuclear power plant in the magazine "Tekhnika-molodezh" for 1971.
Promotional video:
Rigid airship, lifting gas-helium. The length of the ship is 300 meters with a diameter of 50 to 60. Carrying capacity is from 150 to 180 tons in the cargo version. Passenger capacity - depending on the layout of the salons - from 600 to 1800 people. Speed - from 200 to 300 km / h. Interestingly, there was also a hangar for an aircraft and a helicopter on board, which made it possible to communicate with the ground without the need to land the ship (for example, for embarking and disembarking passengers at airports along the flight route).
The layout of the ship.
Let's move on to a nuclear power plant. A reactor with a liquid metal coolant (it is interesting that lithium was chosen, possibly because of its good heat capacity) with a capacity of 200 MW. Hot liquid lithium was sent to a heat exchanger, where it gave off heat to the working gas, which, in turn, drove a turboprop engine with coaxial propellers 20 meters in diameter. Here we see the so-called. closed cycle drive, one of several design options for an aviation nuclear power plant. Similar projects were developed in detail and tested on stands in the 1950s -1970s.
There is a great deal of literature on aviation nuclear power, and anyone interested can be convinced that, of course, from a purely technical point of view, the project was feasible.
1957 edition.
In the USA, the most famous project of the atomic airship was, of course, the Morse ship. The author, professor of aeronautics and former engineer of Goodyear (and this company has built more than 250 airships in its history) in 1964 presented a project of a ship 350 meters long. With a commercial payload of about 150 tons, the required engine power was only….6 thousand hp. Interestingly, a conventional steam turbine was assumed as a transmission, driven by screws through a gearbox. The entire bundle of General Electric reactor, turbine and transmission weighed only 53 tons. It is curious, by the way, that Francis Morse was engaged in a project in the framework of the study "the future of transport in the absence of fuel oil." That is, the question “what will we do when the oil runs out” has been studied in the USA for a very long time …
And here the question of expediency should be asked. Let's leave aside the issue of radiation safety, consequences in case of catastrophes, accidents, etc. This is a topic for a separate discussion.
Let's look at the characteristics of the latest classic Hindenburg-class Zeppelin: a flight range of up to 14,700 km with an hourly consumption of each of the four 1,000-strong engines of 130 kg / h at a cruising speed of 110-120 km / h.
Almost fifteen thousand kilometers is already a very good flight range. Is it wise to use a nuclear facility to increase the range? The issue is controversial. Wouldn't it be more logical to use the large thermal capacity of the reactor to heat the air, thus turning the airship into a thermal one (or a combined one, the so-called rosier, where some of the lifting force is provided by helium, and some - by hot air)? Here it would be possible to use a gas-cooled reactor (for example, of the Magnox type). Such reactors have been known for more than 50 years, operate on metallic unenriched uranium and give gas outlet temperatures up to 400 degrees.
In any case, as we can see, the idea of creating atomic airships seemed to many to be quite attractive, and in this direction some engineering studies of a sketch nature were carried out. The enthusiasm was great.
It is interesting to quote the final words from that article in the magazine of the distant 1971:
“Five, maybe ten years will pass, and we will again see airships in the sky. And this sight will become as familiar as the silvery Tu-144 piercing the clouds."