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Here's another fun one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersonic_Low_Altitude_Missil... An unmanned nuclear-powered ramjet designed to spew warheads, with a predicted range of 116,000 kilometers.
As far as I can tell, aircraft and space nuclear propulsion still hasn't actually be used in flight, right?
I wonder if a RTG could produce enough to run an electric quad or optocopter? For certain applications if unmanned you wouldn’t really need to worry about shielding. I wonder how long those motors can run continuously?
The RTGs on the Voyager spacecraft weigh 38kg. They initially produced 160 Watts. That sounds like a no-go to me.
Other hand Pu-238 produces 570 W/kg. A piper cub with it's 48kw engine would need 87kg of Pu-238 to produce the same energy.
I looked up the cost, $1968/g. So 48kw would cost $171 million.
Interesting idea but doubt.
Here's another fun one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersonic_Low_Altitude_Missil... An unmanned nuclear-powered ramjet designed to spew warheads, with a predicted range of 116,000 kilometers.
And for scale that’s circling the earth three times.
I wonder if a RTG could produce enough to run an electric quad or optocopter? For certain applications if unmanned you wouldn’t really need to worry about shielding. I wonder how long those motors can run continuously?
The RTGs on the Voyager spacecraft weigh 38kg. They initially produced 160 Watts. That sounds like a no-go to me.