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by Anticlockwise 955 days ago
The soviets flew nuclear powered planes for a while. http://www.aviation-history.com/articles/nuke-bombers.htm
1 comments

I don't believe so? Your link doesn't say that those nuclear aircraft actually flew. (?)

I understand that the (claimed, alleged) 2023 nuclear cruise missile test [0] was the first, and only, nuclear-powered aircraft that has flown. All of the Cold War stuff was static-fire tested, at most.

[0] https://www.reuters.com/world/what-is-burevestnik-missile-th... ("What is the Burevestnik missile that Putin says Russia has tested?")

Huh. I thought I remembered that they had, and I thought the link agreed with me, but rereading it sounds like they just put a nuclear reactor on a plane and flew it to see if it would kill the crew.

"Between May and August 1961, the Tu-95LAL completed 34 research flights. Much of them made with the reactor shut down. The main purpose of the flight phase was examining the effectiveness of the radiation shielding which was one of the main concerns for the engineers. The massive amount of liquid sodium, beryllium oxide, cadmium, paraffin wax and steel plates; were the sole source of protection for the crew against the deadly radiation emerging from the core."