en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear-powered_aircraft
3 corrections found
killed 5 military personnel
The five confirmed deaths were Rosatom nuclear-agency employees, not military personnel.
Full reasoning
This wording misidentifies the fatalities in the 2019 Nyonoksa accident. Contemporary reporting citing Rosatom states that five Rosatom staff members/employees were killed at the military test site. That is different from saying the dead were military personnel. Some Defense Ministry personnel were also reported injured, and early Russian military statements mentioned two unnamed specialists who died, but the widely confirmed figure of five refers to Rosatom employees, not servicemembers.
2 sources
- Russian nuclear agency says five killed in accident at test site
Rosatom said on Saturday that five of its staff members were killed in an accident during tests on a military site in northern Russia.
- Death Toll Raised To Five In Arkhangelsk Military Site Blast
Rosatom employees died, the state-run nuclear company said on August 10, raising the number of fatalities from the two reported a day earlier.
Two shielded reactors powered two General Electric J87 turbojet engines to nearly full thrust.
The HTRE test reactors ran modified GE J47 engines, not J87s.
Full reasoning
This sentence appears to mix up the tested HTRE rigs with the planned WS-125 propulsion system.
Government histories of the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion program identify the engines actually operated by the HTRE reactors as modified General Electric J47 turbojets:
- Air Force Materiel Command says HTRE-3 "utilized modified J47 engines" and generated enough power to operate two J47 engines.
- A government history hosted by GovInfo says HTRE-1 operated a single J-47 jet engine and HTRE-3 was tested with parallel J-47 engines.
So the tested engines were J47s. The J87 designation belongs to GE's nuclear turbojet intended for the proposed WS-125 bomber, not the engine model actually run on the HTRE test assemblies described here.
2 sources
- History in Two: Manned Nuclear Aircraft Program
Like the HTRE-2, the HTRE-3 utilized modified J47 engines ... enough power to operate two J47 engines for 64 continuous hours.
- ANP Contractors / General Electric Co. / Chapter 3. a.
The HTRE-3 system was tested with parallel J-47 engines at 32.4 MW ... operating a single J-47 jet engine at power levels of 18.5 MW.
Although President Eisenhower eventually terminated it by cutting NEPA and telling Congress that the program was not urgent
Eisenhower did not terminate the aircraft nuclear propulsion program, and NEPA had already been replaced by ANP in 1951.
Full reasoning
This clause is historically incorrect in two ways.
- NEPA was not what Eisenhower was dealing with in 1958. Official Air Force history says the original NEPA effort was followed by the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion (ANP) program in 1951.
- Eisenhower did not terminate the ANP effort. The same Air Force history says that in February 1958 Eisenhower told Congress there was "no urgency" for the ANP program but still authorized $150 million a year for continued development. His budget messages continued development of nuclear aircraft engines, and the GAO records the actual termination of the ANP program in March 1961 under President Kennedy.
So the sentence is wrong both because it says Eisenhower was "cutting NEPA" years after NEPA had been replaced, and because it says he "terminated" the program when official records show ANP funding and development continued until 1961.
3 sources
- History in Two: Manned Nuclear Aircraft Program
As a result, the Air Force and Atomic Energy Commission joined forces in the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion (ANP) Program. In 1951 ... However, in February of 1958, President Eisenhower informed Congress there was no urgency placed on the ANP Program. He did authorize $150 million a year for ANP Program development.
- Annual Budget Message to the Congress: Fiscal Year 1961
The development of nuclear ram jet engines for missiles, of nuclear aircraft engines, and of nuclear electric powerplants for use at remote military bases will be carried forward.
- Review of Manned Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion Program
The message on national security, transmitted by the President of the United States to the Congress on March 28, 1961, recommended the termination of the entire ANP program. On March 30, 1961, AEC advised GE and P&W that the ANP program was being terminated.