[mandevil]

My favorite bit of design from this era went something like this: "ooohhh, we need something that can handle high heat. How about if we made it radioactive?" and so Mag-Thor was born (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mag-Thor): Magnesium plus Thorium. It's creep resistant up to 350C! And it's only mildly radioactive! That's not a problem, right?

Actually used on the BOMARC and D-21's ramjet engines- which is why you don't originals of their engines on display anywhere.

[dogma1138]

Mag-Thor is interesting it actually has rather poor overall thermal characteristic compared to most metals since its melting point is only circa 650c pretty much the same as magnesium but it basically shrugs any heat upto 350-400c depending on the alloy so it doesn’t changes its dimensions or becomes susceptible to mechanical deformation (it’s basically as hard at 350c at it is at room temp). So it’s useful but only for very specific applications unlike say titanium. And today we have super alloys like inconel which can hold back heat creep up to 650c and it’s annealing starts at almost 900c.

[retrocryptid]

They tell the most pernicious lies about radiation.

[skhr0680]

Fun fact: The real-life inventor of the neutron bomb, Samuel T. Cohen, loved “Repo Man”!