Convair X-6

The Convair X-6 was an experimental aircraft project to develop and evaluate a nuclear-powered jet aircraft, part of United States programmes that ran from 1946 to 1961 under the Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft project and its successor, the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion programme. Convair was to modify two B-36 bombers: one became the NB-36H testbed that carried an operating reactor to study shielding, and the other was to become the X-6, powered by General Electric X-40 engines that used a reactor as their heat source. A large hangar was built at the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho to house it. The programme was cancelled before the X-6 and its reactor engines were completed.